


Encendiendo las luces - An Overwatch FanFiction

by ChrisRookey



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Betrayal, Espionage, Gen, Hacking, Own Character, Revenge, Spy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-10-13 08:00:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 22,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17484254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrisRookey/pseuds/ChrisRookey
Summary: Sergio Ramirez, a young, talented weapon engineer from Spain gets recruited by Talon after an unsuccessful career in his homeland and works proudly in the science department of the powerful underground organisation. One day he is diagnosed with a deadly, genetic disease. Talon ends up abusing him as a test subject. Sergio gets extraordinary powers, but when one of Talon's experiments fails he is considered dead. After waking up in a body bag, he decides to rise from that betrayal. Under the name "Gio", he swears to destroy the organization that used him as weapon smith and guinea pig. But to achieve this he is going to need the help of an old acquintance: None lesser than the notorious hacker Sombra...





	1. 1-1 Intro: Who was Sergio?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that English is not my native language! Grammatical mistakes are likely to be found in this story!

Sergio Ramirez Pardo was born in the South of Spain during the beginning of the Omnic Crisis. As the Omnic Crisis was slowly overrunning Spain and no one was feeling safe there anymore, Sergio’s parents decided to escape from Spain and move to their relatives in Mexico. Sergio’s family moved to Dorado, Mexico, where Sergio spent his childhood. It wasn’t safe there either, but in mind that Sergio’s hometown Torrejón was majorly destroyed and evacuated, Dorado was definitely the better choice. Sergio lost his mother during the Omnic Crisis and lived with his father who was working hard and rarely at home. Sergio was lonesome because of that and spent a lot of time on Dorado’s streets. When he was not outside, he was reading books, from novels to scientific texts. He was always a curious child and educated himself, making him an intelligent boy for his age.  
The young Sergio made friends with an orphan girl named Olivia Colomar. She loved solving mysteries and was an expert of computer technology. Olivia was able to put him under her spell and he helped her with her projects, naïve as he was. She obviously manipulated him, but the more time they spent with each other and the more he helped her, the better they got along and trusted each other. Sergio was the one, who called Olivia’s attention to Commissioner Rivera and put up the plan with the bread basket. He also knew of her connection to the “Los Muertos” but as a gullible little boy he didn’t care much about it.  
One day Sergio’s father decided that they should move back to Spain. The close friendship of Olivia and Sergio was sadly ripped apart. In Spain, Sergio visited school and was an A-grade-student across the board. Later he studied in Madrid, Spain, and passed with flying colors. He became a talented engineer and physicist who sent weapon and armor designs, which should help to overcome future crisis easier, to the Spanish military.  
Despite of his prestige and brilliancy Sergio felt not supported appropriately by the state and research institutions. Other researchers, who did not contribute as much to the federal security as he did, got more funds and attention, even though Sergio’s designs were more innovative. His designs were dismissed because they were deputed to be expensive or too unconventional. But his creativity and his anger did not remain unnoticed. The dark organization Talon got interested in the services of the young military engineer and tried to recruit him.  
One Day he accepted the offer and worked for Talon, which provided all demanded means and respected him like the Spanish government never did. In return Sergio achieved exceptional results for Talon.  
He redesigned Widowmaker’s “Widow’s Kiss” and the rest of her equipment. Also, he knew the technology of Doomfist’s cybernetics inside out. Sergio designed Sombra’s clothes for stealth and mobility. The Translocators were built by her, but Sergio assured that they would work flawlessly. The Sentinel-Submachine Gun was also the work of the ingenious mind of his.  
He was on businesslike, professional terms with Widowmaker and Reaper but disfavored Doomfist for his from Sergio’s point of view radical opinion. Nonetheless he respected Doomfist’s strength and his inspirational behavior. Sergio was cultivating a trustful friendship with Moira because they complemented one another in biology, genetics, military technology and physics. So, they were research partners and friends, helping each other to progress as scientists. They turned into Talon’s scientific dream team.  
Another interesting event in Sergio’s Talon career was his first encounter with Sombra, who he did not see much because of her traveling due to her agent job for Talon. They met randomly in Talon’s base in Venice, Italy, in a hallway and stopped in front of each other with shock. They recognized each other and examined their appearances. The last time they saw each other was in their childhood back in Dorado. When Sergio called her by her real name “Olivia”, she interrupted him and pointed out that her name was Sombra now. Sombra was concerned about keeping her real identity secret, which Sergio respected. Every time they talked, they made sure that everybody who overheard their conversations was not able to conclude that they knew each other for a long time. They saw each other rarely whereby an exposure of Sombra’s identity through overheard dialogues was very unlikely. In the presence of others, she acted like her typical self – Cheeky, eccentric, self-confident. But when she was alone with Sergio, she acted unusually cordial, even though still in her edgy way.  
Sergio worked his way up in Talon’s hierarchy and ended up being part of Talon’s Inner Council.  
He experienced some Ups and Downs during his Talon membership, the internal power struggle and Vialli’s assassination. Doomfist made his way to the top of the organization, which was disliked by Sergio, but at least he provided Sergio and Moira with the necessary means for their research and the development of equipment.  
A little later Sergio fell critically ill. A rare, incurable disease of genetic nature was diagnosed, which was about to kill him soon. Moira offered to investigate the disease and develop a cure. He accepted that offer trustfully and took part in her investigations and experiments, regardless of the pain he had to suffer. Sergio and Moira also arranged that his “treatment” was kept secret, because it was clear that the research would ask for extraordinary procedures. Moira used the same approach as she used to treat Reaper but was not successful. So, she developed a new form of biotics, which used light and energy for cell transformation. The results of the following months were amazing. She changed Sergio’s genes to a state, where his cells reacted with light and energy, giving him the ability to influence his surroundings physically on a highly energetic level. Moira had achieved Sergio’s cure with the change of his genome. He even got an anabolic boost, providing him with a bigger muscle mass, and a growth spurt, making him significantly taller.  
However, she lost herself in her research and had overshot the mark. Sergio wanted only a cure for his disease, not a complete restructuring of his human existence. Even though this genome change had a lot of potential, Sergio rejected it. He just wanted to be healed and keep on working on his weapons and armor.  
Moira claimed that she was about to achieve a breakthrough and forced him to keep taking part in her experiments. At first, he complied reluctantly, but eventually it was all too much for him and he wanted to flee what she of course did not allow. A research partner turned into a test subject. And a volunteer into a prisoner.  
One day Moira carried the experiments too far. She wanted to test the energetic potential of Sergio’s cells and connected him to an electric machine to experience their energetic capacity. The potential was enormous, but Sergio was exposed to severe high voltage and suffered unbearable pain.  
The experiment went wrong in the end because Sergio died due to the energy overload.  
Moira lamented his death but was much more excited for his cell samples which she kept, of course. Sergio’s corpse was disposed impiously in a body bag by some laboratory assistants. His death was kept secret while his designs were still used by Talon.


	2. 1-2 Intro: Who is Gio?

Yet, he was not as dead as everyone expected.  
Sergio’s cells had stored the energy of the machine and discharged themselves, resurrecting Sergio. He opened his eyes which were now permanently glowing in white.  
Sergio went into hiding and reflected about everything: Talon, Moira, his new abilities, his research and his motivation.  
He concluded that his naivety made him vulnerable. His pursuit of knowledge and recognition made him blind, so that he trusted dubious people and helped organizations that were only interested in war and power. His research was not serving the protection of people, instead it was used for their suppression. Sergio took the wrong road by joining Talon and was betrayed by a person he considered as his loyal partner. Instead of helping him she used his situation for her own purposes. Sergio felt obliged to undo his mistakes and destroy what he had built up and was used for evil intentions.  
He wants to dismantle Talon and hunt down every single member until they kneel in front of him, begging for mercy, and he pulls the trigger to make the world better, piece by piece.  
Sergio took the pseudonym “Gio” and mentions his real name never again. He dealt with his new powers and learned how to control them. Gio perfectionated the influencing of his surroundings and is now able to create stasis shields which can stop projectiles and throw them back as he wishes. He can blind enemies with his glare bolt and keep track of their whereabouts through the perception of the energy remains on the enemy. Gio is even capable to teleport himself by limited amounts. Despite of his stature he had a talent for stealthy approaches, making him kind of a spy. He is watchful and intelligent, able to see through people, doesn’t matter if they are omnic or human. Even after his “death” Gio had an impressive overview of the world.  
By the way, Gio used his engineering knowledge to create a weapon that was fitted to the energetic potential of his cells. In other words: A weapon that just can be operated with his own light energy, making him the only possible user.  
The necessary parts though were only attainable in Talon’s base in Venice, Italy, where he worked most recently.  
Gio trained his powers, hardened his body and learned how to fight to be ready for the infiltration.  
Some weeks after his “death” it was time to get the weapon parts from Venice. He infiltrates Talon’s base thanks to his knowledge of the compound. Without being noticed he was able to get to the required parts for his weapon. Unfortunately, he was spotted during his escape by none lesser than Sombra who was coincidentally in Venice at the time. She did not recognize him because he had his back turned on her and snuck suspiciously through the hallways carrying a big bag. Sombra immediately perceived him as an intruder and shot directly at him which he used to test his stasis shields in battle. Every single shot remained stuck in his stasis shield right in front of his body. Sombra’s clip was empty and her look was baffled as she saw her shot bullets sticking in the milky glowing shield. Gio was ambivalent now: He could reflect the bullets and riddle Sombra with them, killing a prominent Talon agent, but he still saw the good old Olivia from Dorado in her, who he had a deep friendship with, when he was still weapon engineer Sergio Ramirez. He could not kill her, he would not forgive himself for that. Gio reflects the bullets into the next wall. As Sombra was changing her clip, he threw a glare bolt precisely into her face, giving him the time to run away. Sombra searched for him after the blinding wore out but was not able to find him because he had already left the building.  
He fused, filed and screwed the parts together to a long, heavy bolt rifle, called “Light Bolter”. His obsession of his plan, to act against Talon, made him a highly focused, cool man of a mysterious kind and an uncanny radiance. Gio pursues his goals without intermission and does not let anything stand in his way. Whenever he encounters difficulties, he uses his intelligence to find a solution. In doing so he does not hesitate to use unconventional and violent means.  
He dresses himself in a deep black, long coat with high collar. Furthermore, he wears heavy buckled boots and a pitch-black Bandana, which covers his mouth and nose. His grim appearance coupled with his imposing stature, his cold, white-glowing eyes, which seem to pierce through the persons he looks at, and his huge, futuristic weapon instills a healthy respect and leaves a lasting impression on the mind of his enemies. Sergio Ramirez, the naïve, kind weapon engineer turned into Gio, the dark, tall avenger with light energy and the menacing Light Bolter who seeks revenge against Talon and wants to redress his former mistakes.  
To fulfill his plans, Gio needs information to find Talon’s most important members and execute them. He will need the help of an old acquaintance…


	3. 2-1 Dorado Connection

It is 1 PM right now in Dorado. The weather is sunny and hot during this season. Just like in the old days, when Olivia and Sergio were investigating the mysteries of Dorado. Gio enters the courtyard of the famous Castillo and gazes down the cliffs at the coast where Dorado is located. The city seems to have recovered visually and infrastructurally from the Omnic Crisis, but "Los Muertos" control the streets even 20 years after. They contributed indeed to the disempowerment of LumériCo and made Mexico a bit more just, but it doesn't change the fact that they are a gang of shady criminals.  
Gio marches with big steps towards the bar "Las Calaveras". It's quite likely that the barkeeper knows Sombra, because her residence is somewhere in the Castillo. He knows this, because she hinted it in some of their dialogues back in Talon’s weapons lab. Gio enters the bar, barely fitting underneath the door frame. Two men sit at the counter and sip at their drinks. The bearded bartender, wearing a dirty, white tanktop, stands behind the counter and cleans a beer mug with a cloth. He lifts his gaze as the tall, dark Gio accesses the pub. While Gio strides through the bar and takes a seat right in front of him, the bartender did not stop to look at Gio. "What would you like?", the barkeeper asks neutrally, again looking at the beer mug in his hands. Gio responds with silence and shows the barkeeper a photo of Sombra. "Where lives this woman?", he asks with his deep voice. The bartender looks up, acknowledges the photo and lowers his look again to his glass. "I don't know this woman.", he answers. Gio silently takes note of his answer. He releases Sombra's photo which falls gently onto the counter, stands up and puts the stool aside. Gio is two heads taller and twice as wide as the bartender who desperately tries to ignore Gio. He slowly bends over the barkeeper and comes his face so close that the tips of their noses almost touch. Gio can see the fear in his eyes. The bartender immediately stops to clean the beer mug as he perceives Gio's white-glowing gaze right in front of him.  
"Do I look like an idiot? I know that she lives here, in Dorado, right here in the Castillo. And I am sure that you can help me to find her." Gio's deep, menacing voice shocks the bartender to the core. The other guests don't even dare to look in his direction. A short moment of silence passes in which the men stare into each other's eyes.  
"What do you want from her?", asks the bartender, obviously impressed of beefy Gio and his white eyes. "I just want to talk. It's been a while since we last spoke. She is an old friend of mine.". Gio speaks this sentence as calm as possible to point out to the bartender that he doesn't want to harm her, because obviously he tries to protect her as he assumes that Gio might not be here for a friendly visit.  
She always was trouble. Fortunately, she learned fast how to not get caught. Yet, she is a popular person in Mexico, especially in her former gang, the "Los Muertos". Nonetheless, Sombra is always avoiding the spotlight whenever possible. The bartender has probably thought that Gio is looking for her to punish Sombra for a cybercrime.  
Gio holds himself back from more brute methods, for now. The bartender hesitates. Then he points with a quick nod to his left at the other exit of the pub. "Head that way until you reach a yellow house with a huge, modern door. But she usually isn’t at home.". Gio briefly follows the gaze of the bartender, then turns again to him. "I hope that I don't have to return to you.", he warns and strides through the door the bartender has shown him.  
Gio marches over the great courtyard of the Castillo, past the big copper statue of a military officer. Nearby, he hears bassy music and loud conversations of young adults which are obviously enjoying themselves. By identifying the conversation topics, Gio detects that these adults are petty criminals. He just ignores them because he has come for something else than making acquaintances with members of "Los Muertos". He already sees the sunny-yellow facade and the blue-white tiles on the strips of the aforementioned building. After passing underneath the viaduct he spots the "huge, modern door", an automatic-door which looks like a wooden sliding door but is apparently operated mechanically. It must be Sombra's residence or at least her "workroom". Naturally, the heavy door was locked up tight. Now Gio only has to find a way in. Of course, this would be difficult - for an ordinary human being. Gio focuses at the space behind the door and teleports himself with a bright flash into her residence. It's a relatively big, single room, illuminated in violet and pink. Electric sounds and the faint noises of nitrogen coolings pervade the room. Left of the huge door was a big wall with a for Sombra typically violet-glowing mind-map which was projected by a hologram device on the floor. This apparently are the current results of Sombra's research regarding the connections of all sorts of important organizations all over the world. The symbols representing Overwatch and Talon are also part of that mind-map. All lines are somehow connected to an eye-shaped symbol which Gio actually happens to know. It seems that this symbol is the center of Sombra's interest because the rest of the symbols is already known and Sombra is attracted by mysteries. This eye-shaped symbol is a huge secret and supposedly nobody knows what is behind it, but whatever it represents has to be extremely powerful. Gio knows what it stands for but doesn't know much about it. Yet, he should be able to obtain some information when necessary. Gio has learned how to operate in the shadows as an informant and how to disappear from the radar.  
Opposite the door was her workstation: A desk with an office chair and a gigantic screen which was surrounded by six smaller screens. Additionally, there were lots of computers, small servers, data storages, cables and even a small fridge surrounding the workstation. On the desk lie some bags of nachos and cans of energy drink. Gio looked in vain for a garbage bin in this room. From the door to the right is a traditional kitchen with a wood-fired stove. The dining table with the desolate chair and the floor surrounding it are used for the construction of translocators. The kitchen is funnily clean. Either it is not getting used or Sombra cleans it extensively. Apparently, it's the second option because the pots and clay jars on the stove and worktop seem to be used regularly. Gio is interested in how good Sombra can cook. The big pot on the stove smells faintly like Chili con Carne. He suppresses the picture of Sombra cooking a spicy portion of home-made Chili con Carne for dinner.  
The right rear corner is used by Sombra as a storage: Lots of cardboard boxes full of electronic parts and household appliances are stacked there. Next to it is a cozy couch which is ideal for Sombra's size, but would be far too small for Gio. To the left of the couch is a table which carries a laptop, a file which Gio simply ignores and - what a surprise - a half bottle of fine tequila.  
As Gio turns to the right, he spots Sombra's bed which is of modern design. It doesn't have any sheets and a thin blanket lies accurately folded at the foot of the bed. The weather here is always mild, so it is not necessary to cover with a blanket for a pleasant sleep. On the blanket lies a cute, brown teddy bear. Gio smirks. Apparently, she feels lonely while sleeping, making this little companion at her side crucial. He even knows this teddy bear himself because she already had it when she was a child. The teddy is in good condition which pleases Gio. It shows that she cares for her stuff. Behind the bed lies a big, white box which is locked. Gio assumes that this must be where she keeps her clothes, her wardrobe, so to say. On the pretty plain walls are some posters of video games and a graffiti showing her signature, the infamous "sugar skull", graces the wall above her bed. Two old-fashioned ceiling fans, which are supposed to keep the workroom cool, hang in the center of the residence.  
Based on the furniture of this room Gio sees what kind of priorities Sombra sets: The technology here is well-kept and very expensive while the rest of the room's furniture is simple and functional. The slight mess near her computers indeed shows the nature of a typical knowledge seeker on a mission.  
Gio has observed recent Talon activity and estimates that Sombra should arrive soon. A short time later he spots movements outside and hears a well-known sigh. She is here.


	4. 2-2 The Purple Lair

The door opens and Sombra enters. The automatic door closes behind her after she touches the console next to the door case. In her right she carries her Sentinel-submachine gun which she puts on the desk. The talented hacker is exhausted and hopes for a break from her Talon activities, a break in form of "internet-surfing". She wears her typical dark cloak, accentuated in purple, pink and light blue. Gio knows this cloak too well because he designed it and developed the flexible material. Her hairstyle has not changed since their last encounter. She still wears her famous sidecut. The left part of her hair is short-cut and ornamented with futuristic patterns while the right part has the black hair long and flowing, colored balayage style in purple and with white hair-ends.  
Sombra lets herself fall on the office chair, breathes deeply and leans on her left elbow to put her chin into her left hand and gaze with a tired expression at the screen in front of her. Sombra enters the password one-handed and impressively fast while mumbling something in Spanish. Then she grabs into an open bag of nachos and eats two of them with relish. While she chews, she plugs a data storage in and several windows show up on her screen. Behind her, Gio stands still and menacingly. His white eyes stand out within the gloomy lighting of the room.  
Unsuspectingly, Sombra works at her computer and takes another nacho. A floorboard creaks behind her. Her chewing speed decreases as she realizes the noise. Sombra spots Gio's huge shadow in the corner of her eye. She knows that this silhouette should not be there. Fast she swallows the rest of the nacho and acts like she is ignoring the shadow behind her. In an extreme reflex, she takes her submachine gun from the desk and turns her office chair around exactly 180 degrees. The gun is immediately pointed at Gio's forehead. He stares directly into Sombra's purple eyes. Like a wax figure he stands in front of her, completely motionless and unimpressed of her loaded gun. "Who are you?", she asks coolly. No answer, not even a single motion in his face. After a few seconds of staring silently at each other she bends her head aside and examines him incredulously. Then she leans forward and reaches for him with her empty hand without lowering her gun. During that, Gio remains motionless without even blinking a single time. He is curious about her reaction. Even with her knowledge of the world she doesn't know that he is still alive. If Sombra still feels attached to the old Sergio she will be happy to see him again. Her hand keeps coming closer. When she is only a few inches away from touching his coat, he speaks with his deep haunting voice: "Yes, I am real!". Her arm immediately stops and drops down. Sombra rises from her seat, still pointing the submachine gun at Gio's head. He slides his bandana under his chin and reveals his entire face. Sombra narrows her eyes while she examines him, then she wides them again. "Sergio?". Gio slowly shakes his head. "My name is Gio". A quick smile flits over her lips because she has recognized the anecdote. She swings her arm with the gun over her shoulder, so her gun lasts upside down on it and points behind her. "You're alive I see... Fancy eyes by the way. And how much you have grown! I heard terrible things about your death.". Gio shrugs his shoulders subtly. She carries on. "How the hell did you survive that?". Gio stares at her, not moving a muscle. She knew about his death all along while the other Talon members still believe that he “ran away” because of personal reasons. Gio is kind of surprised, but not in a negative way. He responds: "Apparently my time has not come yet.". Sombra frowns, obviously disappointed of his answer. While sighing, she puts her heading into her neck. Her annoyed look returns to Gio. "¿En serio? You really want to play this game?". Gio smirks. "I thought you like this kind of games.", he answers dryly. Sombra hesitates because he hit a weak spot. He knows that she plays the "mystery game" when it comes to her personal information herself. "Yes, but only if I make or know the rules.", she answers in a conspiratorial voice. "And how did you enter my house? I locked the door for sure.". He returns her look but remains silent. Her left eyebrow rises a bit which shows a hint of insecurity. He doesn't answer out of personal amusement, but then he redeems her. "The door was shut. I just know a few tricks.". She rolls her eyes sighing and shakes her head, lets her arms hang limp. "Dios, when did you become like that?". Gio smiles slightly which is ignored by Sombra at first. "Whatever... You're not going to answer me anyway.". She lifts her gaze and notices his subtle smile. "Wait! You can smile? You seemed like you forgot that!", she responds in an excessive tone, obviously being sarcastic. "Yes, I can. But not many make me anymore.". Sombra grins. "I'll take that as a compliment, I suppose.". She looks into Gio's eyes. "Perdoname, where is my hospitality? Tequila?". Gio nods.  
Sombra points at the dining table by nodding sideward in the direction of it and puts her gun back on the desk of her computer. Gio pushes Sombra's office chair through the room and puts it at one end of the wooden dining table and sits down on the wooden chair next to it while Sombra gets two shot glasses and the tequila bottle from the table next to the workstation. She delicately puts up the glasses with her nails between the translocator parts and pours the clear tequila in; first him, then herself. Sombra sits down, one leg elegantly lying on top of the other. Both raise their glass. "¡Chinchin!", she says smiling. He responds "¡Chinchin!", and they clink their glasses to drink the tequila up in one liberate sip. They exhale spiritedly after emptying their glasses and let the alcohol sink in. A short moment of silence passes. Gio has put his glass on the table while Sombra is turning hers between her long, violet finger nails and examines it like it would be a gem.


	5. 2-3 Sombra

"You're not just here to visit me and cadge some tequila, are you?" Sombra asks without looking away from her glass. Gio denies in a serious voice. "Que pena...", she answers and sighs. "What do you want?". "Names. I want the names of all important Talon members and their current locations.", he answers with a determined undertone. Sombra smirks and can't suppress a malicious laugh, still turning her glass between her nails and not looking in Gio's direction. "So it's revenge. How obvious. Quite a mission you have there.", she answers slightly bored. "Not revenge, gratification.", Gio responds. Sombra waves aside. "Yeah, yeah, whatever... I cannot do that.". Gio doesn't reply while he watches her playing around the glass with her finger nails. She continues. "As you should know, I work for Talon. I would harm myself would I grant you your loco desire. There is no use for me in doing that for you.", she answers with a neutral tone, but her sarcastic choice of words points out her disdain.  
Gio keeps a straight face when Sombra denies his request. Without moving his gaze from her face, he points with his left arm at the conspiracy projected on the wall. "This eye-shaped symbol. It is one of the best kept secrets of our world.". Gio leans forward and Sombra turns her eyes to him. "I know you. You never turned your back from the mysteries and use Talon because they have connections to the most powerful persons and organizations of the globe. And I know that this symbol represents one of the most powerful forces which strength is its secrecy. It has extreme influence on the world. Especially on the Omnics.". Sombra's eyes light up as she patiently listens to Gio's words. Gio folds his hands and carries on, looking into Sombra's eyes as he would be able to read her mind. " I know this symbol and what it stands for. It's the emblem of the Iris and its god programs.". "Now we’re on the same wavelength! Go on.", she replies quickly, obviously surprised and delighted with his knowledge. "Information about the god programs in exchange of the list of the Talon members.". Sombra immediately stops to play with the glass and turns her face to Gio. Her serious expression reveals to Gio thoughtfulness and exertion. Gio has played the right cards and impressed her with what she cares the most for: Knowledge. Sombra leans back and looks to the right at the ceiling. The shot glass has lost its importance eventually. Gio waits patiently for her response. " Still, I can't just hand you the list of Talon's leaders.". Gio has expected this answer. "Let us think smaller! Single information for single names.". Sombra hesitates, she is obviously calculating the odds and opportunities. It's also a matter of Sombra's trust in Gio's abilities. Sombra turns her gaze again to Gio's glowing eyes. "Let's say I'm interested. How do you plan to do it?". Gio leans back and answers coolly: "Just leave that to me. I have clues I am going to pursue. When I transmit the information, I demand a name and a location. Fast. And without detours." Sombra puts her shot glass in front of her on the table. At first, the serious look remains on her face, but then her expression eases up and her violet, full lips form her typical, slightly mischievous smile. She takes the tequila bottle and pours in; first him, then herself. After putting down the bottle she takes her glass and raises it towards Gio. "¡Salud!", she says happily. Gio understands this gesture. She obviously has accepted his offer. So, she really is a part of Talon to do her own research because Talon has plenty of interaction with powerful organizations that surely have something to do with the god programs - typical opportunism of Sombra. She still manipulates with ease, joins the right people at the right time and sticks to her own interests, that's what Gio thinks of it all. He could even expect that she doesn't keep her promise, but he has the feeling that Sombra feels an old attachment to him. Surely, she wouldn't have agreed that fast otherwise, if she would have forgotten Sergio's impact on her life. That Sombra's issue with the god programs would be something very personal is yet beyond his knowledge.  
Gio takes his glass of tequila. "¡Salud!", he replies. They look into each other's eyes as they clink their glasses and empty them in one sharp sip. Then, Gio puts his glass on the table, stands up, pulls his bandana over his nose and heads to the door which Sombra opens with her cybernetic hacking skills without moving away from the table. " I hope to hear from you.", Sombra shouts after him while she sits in her office chair and holds the empty shot glass between her nails. Gio stops on the doorstep and turns his head to the right as if he would want to look over his shoulder. "Don't worry.", he responds dryly and marches out into the heat of Mexico.


	6. 3-1 Fortress

Gio didn't lie when he told Sombra about "clues". Even during his time with Talon, he heard of the god programs, but the most was just rumors. Where these god programs are located and which institutions are involved is a legendary secret, but Gio knows one thing: The god programs have been quarantined after the Omnic Crisis ended. Initially, they were protected by Overwatch. Gio is fully aware that it is going to be almost impossible to find a former Overwatch member because most of them are dead or disappeared. He possibly could try to find an Overwatch member to get information about the god programs, but it simply would require a lot of effort, especially in temporal terms.  
So, Gio focuses on the organization that took the responsibility to watch the powerful god programs after Overwatch was disbanded. This organization is also very popular and an obvious target: Helix Securities International, abbreviated: HSI. Helix gets financed by the UN and has the finest equipment as well as high qualified personnel. Around the globe are heavily armed bases and objects of protection which Helix administrates. HSI commands its own private army and is armored enough to fight an entire war by itself.  
Even if it looks like Helix is truly invincible, the past has proven the opposite. Kairo, Numbani and Grand Mesa are the most prominent examples for Helix's vulnerability. And Gio plans to add another location onto that list. Helix has a lot of computer-controlled weapon systems such as drones, missile silos and military Omnic units. To operate this quantity of weapon systems, Helix has data centers which are also responsible for the digital quarantine of the god programs. Gio knows that Helix maintains a strong IT security and that Sombra has a hard time breaking through the firewalls. He counts on getting access data for the Helix network through the intranet, so that Sombra can get into the network and access the quarantine systems of the god programs herself. This should provide her with extremely interesting information, enough to make her fulfill her part of the deal.  
Gio is not as gifted and technologically advanced in hacking as Sombra is, but he has some experience with computers thanks to his military technology research, giving him the confidence to tap successfully into the intranet of Helix. To access the intranet without having to break firewalls he has to infiltrate a Helix data center. The facilities are going to be heavily guarded after the last incidents, but Gio believes in his strength and his abilities. These soldiers use only bullets, all conventional and influenceable by his light powers.  
The Helix data center that Gio is targeting to fulfill his plan is located in Savannah, Georgia, USA. This picturesque city grew with the flow of time and is now one of the technologically most advanced port cities of the US. The skyline is lined with interestingly designed skyscrapers which stand out with their vivid colors and forms. Just a few clouds hover in the sky over Savannah during this summer season and a warm, humid weather determines the tropic temperature. The data center is at the outskirts, in a rural part of the metropolitan area of Savannah where it is possible to see the skyline from afar. The building is surrounded with green plains and just one desolate two-lane road connects the data center with the residual infrastructure of Georgia. It looks like a huge black block of concrete, surrounded with high walls full of turrets, guards and armor plates. The main gate is a 15 meters high metal door which is pretty bulky and always triggers an ear-hurting alarm tone when opening. Only the parking lot next to it seems normal for a data center. If Gio wouldn't know that this is actually a data center, he would assume a high-security prison or a military base. Helix's credibility is on the line after the last incidents, so they've put out the big guns. Gio sits in his black, fine sports car and parks in the parking lot outside the perimeter. Wearing his significant black coat, he silently waits on the leather seat and observes the walls of the data center. It has a special feeling for Gio to infiltrate such a compound because it truly seems like a real test of his skills. He thinks about how he could get past the walls. The material is too dense to teleport through. The front door is obviously not an option with such surveillance, so the only way is to get over the walls. Vertical teleportation is of course possible as well, but more complicated to perform since Gio must calculate more carefully. Gio leaves the car and marches to the wall which is only separated from the parking lot by a thin grass strip. He looks up and spots two guards patrolling on top of the thick wall. The guards chatted and one of them walks slowly along the wall in direction of the main building. The other guard already spotted Gio, but only took note of him for a few seconds. Now he carelessly leans on the railing looking into the distance - Not a good idea. Gio teleports up onto the wall, right next to the soldier staring into the vastness. Precise teleportation out of the textbook! The soldier looks surprised at the big Gio appearing with a bright flash. He doesn’t even open fire, but Gio is anyways so fast that he hits an uppercut against the soldier before he can even react. The soldier that left after the conversation notices his comrade getting knocked out and suddenly turns around. He spots Gio and gets pierced by his white-glowing gaze. Before he can ready his gun, he already has a glare bolt in his face and drops the weapon. He only sees eye-hurting white and his senses are numbed. A moment later the glare bolt vanishes, and the soldier gets his senses back. He looks into Gio's menacing white eyes and realizes the big hand of the black-dressed man tightly enclosing his neck. Then he notices the missing ground contact. Gio holds him one-handed in a lifted stranglehold. After a few moments the soldier passes out and Gio lets him fall on the ground like a piece of trash. Gio watches his surroundings. Nobody else seems to have noticed the scuffle on top of the wall.


	7. 3-2 Slightly changing the Plan

Gio scouts around and examines the defense of Helix. Everywhere on the wall are guards and apparently computer-controlled turrets. Down in the courtyard are besides of more guards some vehicles which obviously belong to suppliers. The wall has connection corridors which lead to the main building and ladders making it possible to ascend the wall from inside the perimeter. All accesses of the main building are watched by cameras, but Gio should be able to find a way to avoid them. He marches along the corridor on the wall until he reaches the field of view of the cameras. Then, he launches glare bolts hitting the cameras at the door. The white veil is going to look like a billowing image interference. Gio walks nonchalant through the field of view of the cameras which are not able to track him anymore. By teleporting he gets past the steel door secured with a fingerprint scanner. As Gio appears in the hallway he notices a masked Helix soldier who leans against the wall a few meters in front of him and seems like almost dozing off. Gio is so nice that he helps him with a hard uppercut to his chin. The huge man carries the soldier's body to a nearby broom closet and locks the unconscious soldier in. Then he pulls out a holopad, a small futuristic device on which he has all necessary information about the data center and which is going to be his tool to hack the intranet of Helix. He checks the architectural plans to find the ideal access point. It would be possible to tap into the servers directly, but Gio would have a hard time extracting the right data out of the complex data storages. He is good, but he is not Sombra. So, it should be the computer of a technician or a programmer. These systems are more familiar to Gio and easier to hack. Gio hopes for access data of high-ranked personnel and passwords for important data sets. He is fully aware that he would not be able to hack into an isolated god program directly, but he counts on Sombra to find something interesting while snooping around in the data.  
The analysis of the architecture results that an office which is responsible for the security administration is located at the end of the hallway. Interestingly, the security level inside the data center is low. There is few activity in the building and the soldier that Gio just took out apparently is the only one in this wing. Gio marches with big steps through the hallway which is painted in sterile white while the floor is marked with black signs. A little later he stands in front of the office door. The sign says: "System Administration 02". Gio presses his ear against the door and listens in. He hears noises of typing and mouse clicking. According to the amount and the difference between the tones there must be two persons. Gio notices that the door isn't locked. Instead of simply teleporting into the room he decides to take the most obvious approach: He opens the door. When he stands in the room of the system administration, he sees a man and a woman silently sitting next to each other and working at their computers. The woman, probably in her mid-thirties, wears black-framed glasses and long, brown hair. The man has short blonde hair, pale skin and distinctive, steel-blue eyes. Gio knows this man well, well enough to get seriously angry. It is Scott Dawson, an American spy who joined Talon and worked already as a snitch during Sergio's Talon time. Gio remembers him as an extremely arrogant, but adaptable man with an impressively high reputation among Talon's ranks - reason enough for Gio to take him out. Dawson and the woman look up at the same time to check who just entered their room. Both widen their eyes shocked as they realize the tall man in the long, black coat and with the white-glowing, menacing eyes standing right in front of their desks. Gio's eyes last on Dawson since the moment Gio recognized him. He stops in front of their workstations and bends over Dawson who drops his jaw. "Dawson... What a surprise to see you here.", he speaks in a threatening voice. "You... You know me?", he asks frightened. Gio looks deeply into his eyes as he would want to crack his skull only with his look. "Your time as Talon spy is over!". Gio throws Dawson's flatscreen violently in the direction of the spy who jumps hectically from his office chair, rolls off and flees through another exit of the room. Gio runs quickly and with long steps after him. He entirely ignores the screaming woman who sat next to Dawson.


	8. 3-3 Places in Hell

Dawson hastens through another white hallway being followed by the threatening and sovereign Gio. A masked Helix soldier comes around the corner after he heard Dawson's screams. He sees Gio and fires a burst which Gio catches with his stasis shield. A few bullets are reflected at the soldier who gets wounded deadly. The rest of the bullets is launched towards Dawson who saves himself by jumping through a door. Parts of the door frame and the wall next to it were riddled, right where Dawson's head was a moment ago. Gio walks after him and recognizes that he is now in the server rooms. Big servers and modern computers are set up in tidy lines which form long, imposing corridors with strong ventilation. Everywhere are noises of working technology and flowing air. At first, Gio doesn't know where Dawson went, but his loud footsteps and his whining give away his position. When Gio enters the corridor in which Dawson is, the snitch notices him and pulls a big, bulky computer of a hovering transport device to block the entire corridor. Gio would not be able to pass the barricade so easily, but the black-dressed avenger keeps his cool. A few moments after the computer dropped on the floor with a loud bang and Dawson begins to feel safe Gio appears next to him out of a bright flash. Out of the sudden he grabs Dawson's neck with his massive hands, before he can even do something about it. He presses the gasping Talon agent against a server and looks furiously into his eyes. Dawson's gaze does express nothing else than fear of death which is understandable due to Gio's plans. Just a moment later a soldier comes around a nearby corner and shouts something in Gio's as well as Dawson's direction. Then he pulls out his gun and shoots. Gio only permits two shots: The first one gets reflected into the head of the soldier, the second one gets caught by Gio in a stasis field resulting the bullet to hover an inch above his hand. Dawson stares terrified at the bullet which is surrounded by a bright scheme. It still is pointing into Gio's direction. The menacing man speaks coolly: "Save some places in hell." Then, Gio turns the bullet cruelly slow in the direction of Dawson's head. He starts to whine and wriggle even stronger. Tears well up in the eyes of the Talon snitch who tries to break free from the iron stranglehold by hitting and scratching, but he fails against Gio’s brute force and painlessness. The bullet hovers steadily in one spot because Gio holds it with his light biotics, but it still has the same power like in the moment it was fired. When he releases it, it will pierce Dawson’s head like it was shot at him in the first place.  
Gio enjoys the fear and the desperate resistance of Dawson while he witnesses his certain death. Not a single muscle moves in Gio's face while he slowly turns the bullet at Dawson's forehead. Memories of Sergio's encounters with the infamous and arrogant Talon snitch run through his head. He never liked him because he treated him contemptuously. Dawson never showed any gratitude or admiration for Sergio's work. He always took the modern equipment for granted without appreciating anything. Sergio was just a nerdy slave to him. Yet Dawson was able to afford such a disrespectful attitude because of his outstanding expertise in industrial and military espionage. His performances got him a great reputation and he is on good terms with the leaders of Talon. All this is finally getting paid back. His death is going to weaken Talon's influence on Helix, but not forgetting the fact that Dawson probably is not the only spy of Talon among Helix's lines.  
The bullet is now pointed right at Dawson's forehead. It remains still for a second, then Gio releases it and it rushes with its usual speed into his head. Suddenly Dawson's resistance ceases, his body slackens and his whining quits. It is done. A loud alarm tone and red light fill the server room. Gio's presence is no longer a secret for the rest of the data center. He turns his head to the right and watches for movement, then he drops Dawson's lifeless body. Nearby, soldiers rush into the server room. Loud trampling and the clatter of equipment accompanied by yelling of military phrases are heard. Now it is going to be more difficult to get the data he is here for, but Gio doesn't get discouraged because of the situation. He tricked death once and is ready to do it again. Gio stands unfavorably in a corridor with only two ways out. From both the front and the back soldiers come who are stupid enough to open fire simultaneously with full-automatic rifles at Gio. He spreads his arms to his left and right to create a complete biotic sphere around him. All bullets get caught in the milky-white dome. Every single round lasts on Gio’s power. If he would give in, his death would be inevitable. He concentrates his biotic powers with an intense face. His body begins to shine brightly as he focuses on gathering his powers. Then he releases yelling furiously all his power explosion-like. The hundreds of bullets are reflected with the original speed and riddle the soldiers around him. People scream in pain, sparks fly as the bullets hit the servers and plenty of bodies fall to the ground dead.  
Gio needs to breathe through because he has used a lot of power in a short time, but his regeneration is pretty good. From his left come more soldiers and even a single Omnic, of course armed to the teeth. Gio sends the own burst back to the first soldier attacking him, then he teleports to the second soldier and knocks him out to steal his gun and kill the following soldiers with the rest of his ammunition. He just rips the Omnic's head off and throws a glare bolt in the face of an aiming soldier. While the soldier screams in pain, holding his eyes, Gio launches another soldier into a server with an impulse wave out of his hand. Then he turns again to the glared soldier and takes him out with his strength. The corridor is now just filled with the bodies of Helix soldiers who were not able to stop Gio. He examines his work and feels absolutely nothing while doing it. They were in the way of his plans and he would take any means necessary to complete them. Gio senses a movement behind him. "Eat this!", a soldier shouts outrageously and the triggering of a rocket launcher sounds. Gio raises his hand in shot direction and stops the rocket centimeters away from hitting his face. Without turning his head Gio throws the rocket back. The explosion destroys a lot of important electronic parts and causes a fire.  
As soon as possible, Gio leaves the server rooms before reinforcements can arrive. He heads to the room where he found Dawson and sits down in front of his computer. Then he connects his holopad with the computer and hacks Dawson's user-ID in short time. Gio has a lot of time pressure of course because the data center is in alert status right now. He scans the data storages and connections within the intranet, copies important access data for interesting files which could contain information about the quarantine programs. Gio cannot classify all data but is able to interpret their function. To Sombra, this data is going to be much more useful than to him. She is going to be very pleased to get a peek behind the scenes of Helix and Gio expects her to fulfill the deal: Information about a whereabout of a Talon leader.


	9. 3-4 Boop

After some minutes Gio has the feeling that he extracted everything relevant of the quarantine programs. He disconnects the holopad and erases all digital traces as good as he is able to. Then he focuses his senses: Of course, he feels a lot of energy signatures which are from Omnics, vehicles and turrets within the perimeter. Even with that high level of activity it seems that the way which Gio used to get in is safe to go at the moment. The fire in the server room should also attract a lot of attention. Gio opens the door and walks out into the hallway. Nobody seems to be nearby his position. Only the whimpering of the soldier locked in the broom closet is to hear.  
He marches through the corridor until he reaches the door and glares the cameras on his way out. The way on top of the wall is empty. The soldiers he took out on his way in still lie there motionlessly. Gio looks at the courtyard. Everywhere are soldiers on the move. A lot of them are not even looking for him, instead they are busy with getting rid of the damage he has done in the server room. Gio watches how Helix soldiers with gas masks carry out bodies of their comrades while a menacingly black smoke rises from the main door. In the distance sound the sirens of rescue vehicles. Gio's mission is a success, but he has dealt a lot of damage - more than he has planned to do. But he forgot how to regret. It was a necessary evil to succeed in his undertaking. He marches with long steps towards the edge of the wall, right above the parking lot where his black sports car is parked. Then he jumps down and teleports mid-air to effectively reduce the drop height. After his landing he gets into the car and drives away before the Helix troops spot him. He heads in direction of Savannah and plugs in his holopad into the vehicle system, so he can use the holographic HUD to control the holopad and connects it with the internet. Gio still has Sombra's contact data from his times with Talon. She guards the communication link of her cybernetic implant like her eyeballs and controls meticulously who knows it. Most Talon members can only reach her with simple communication methods like her headset, but there are exceptions. Sergio Ramirez was one of them. Maybe some members of her closest squad are also some, Widowmaker and Reaper, for example.  
Gio lets the holopad enter the saved contact data of her implant and confirms the call. After some seconds Sombra really answers it. "Who is there?", she asks in a serious voice. "Gio? Is it really you?", she speaks surprised, but happily at the same time. She obviously hacked the connection and recognized Gio due to the usage data of the holopad. "I have something for you.", he replies dryly. "I am also happy to hear from you, Gio! How was your day?", she sarcastically counters his harsh greeting. Gio ignores her and uploads the data he extracted, so that Sombra can retrieve them directly. "Ohh, what do we have here? I don't even bother asking how you got that data. You don't answer me, anyway.", Sombra answers as she sees the uploaded data. "Now your part...", Gio begins, but Sombra interrupts him sharply. "No! I'll see for myself if you brought me something good, me entiendes?". Gio snorts angrily which Sombra simply ignores. About two- or three-minutes pass in which Sombra examines Gio's stolen data. Not a single word is spoken, occasionally Sombra makes contemplative and agreeing noises. Gio waits patiently, but also annoyed at the same time while he drives in the direction of Savannah. Then Sombra breaks the silence. "¡Impresionante! And I don't say that a lot to others. Thanks for the deep insight in Helix's network, grandullón.". Gio hasn't forgotten her part of the deal. "Name and location.", he demands in his deep, serious voice. Sombra begins to chuckle wickedly. A few seconds Gio has to endure her malicious laughter without saying a word himself. "Boop!", she adds and cuts the connection. Gio rages. He hits his bulky hand on the black-leathered steering wheel. "You...", he shouts while shaking his head violently.


	10. 4-1 Target acquisition

"Do you have something to say?", it asks suddenly over the communication system of the sports car. Sombra's genuine voice lets Gio's rage subside immediately. ¡Ay, Gio! I thought you know me well enough.". Gio remains silent and doesn't interfere while she is speaking. "And don't shout when I might be listening in! That's very rude.", she adds in a touchy voice. "We had a deal, Sombra.", Gio responds gravely. "You don't say, grandullón.", she replies slightly annoyed and pauses, taking a deep breath. "I'll be nice this time.", she speaks and Gio receives a small file on his HUD. In it are a set of coordinates, date, time, two photos and names. The coordinates describe a place in London, the names are Ian and Cassandra Sheffield. "¿Contento?", she asks. Gio looks up from the holo display with the data. He affirms. "There you go! Wasn't that bad, was it?". Gio can imagine her sly smile at the other end. She has temperament and plays a lot with gestures and facial expressions. After Gio didn't reply Sombra takes over once again. "So, I hope you have fun!", she adds while ending the sentence melodically and cuts the connection. Gio examines the file which Sombra sent. He sees the photos and knows instantly that she really has taken his request seriously. The Sheffield couple is well-known to Gio. They are financiers of Talon's R&D department, serving Doomfist's and Moira's will. "Gracias.", Gio speaks despite the connection being cut. He just learned that this circumstance is not relevant for Sombra to eavesdrop.  
Gio heads to London on the given date. He collated the data and understands what kind of information Sombra actually gave him. Ian and Cassandra Sheffield are English salespeople who accumulated a large fortune and support various charity organizations. But this is all just a disguise to raise and invest money in Talon's research which the Sheffields were already pursuing during Sergio's times with Talon. The given date is related to a popular charity ball in London in the late evening, located in an old ballroom in King's Row. Gio checks the architectural plans of the ballroom because he plans to assassinate the Sheffields with his light bolter. The large hall, which was used for ecclesiastical purposes before, has upper floors which would be ideal for an attack with a high-ranged weapon. But Gio knows that his light bolter is still in its beta phase and a shot from that distance would be difficult to perform without the necessary preparation. Yet, he trusts in his knowledge about his weapon and his practice experience. The last calibrations of the experimental weapon looked promising, so Gio is confident that he is going to hit these shots. Gio doesn't expect the security to be heavily armed. It probably is going to be just some guards in black suits with handguns.  
It is now 9 PM. The night sky over London is nearly cloudless and the bright stars shine beautifully from above - the perfect night for the assassination of two Talon leaders, in Gio's opinion. He will make progress in succeeding with his plans to dismantle Talon as soon as he eliminates them. He parks his sports car in a quiet side alley near the ballroom, a former church, which is deeply integrated into the district. Gio takes his light bolter from the co-driver's seat and gets out of the car. He breaths the cool night air and listens to the jazz music which comes suppressed out of the ballroom. Gio needs to decide how he would like to get into the hall. The front door is of course not an option. Theoretically he could just teleport himself in, but his bright flash would attract too much attention. Furthermore, there is not enough cover to do that, even on the upper floors. So, he needs to improvise to get access. Gio finds on the right side of the building a side entrance which was opened by a guard lively speaking to a fine dressed man while smoking. He watches the two men who seem to know each other well and uses the shadows to slip through the open door. Even with his stature he can move surprisingly smooth and manages it to let the smokers behind without getting noticed. The hunter has infiltrated the prey's burrow.  
Now, he just needs to reach his destined position and shoot, then the evening would be perfect. Gio strides through the side areas of the ballroom to reach the staircase. He avoids the rooms where the guests seem to circulate a lot and manages it to move through the festive building without getting caught. The security in Savannah was definitely tighter. While he travels to the upper floors of the high building made of marble, he barely sees any guards and none of them seems to be heavily armed. The challenge will be to take the shots. Gio wants to make it less subtle this time: He wants to hit the Sheffields in the midst of the festivities. This tactic is of course risky and brachial, but Gio doesn't have any second thoughts. The escape should be no problem with teleportation. Gio reaches the floor which he chose after analyzing the architecture. This area consists of connected balconies, 40 meters above the main dancefloor of the ballroom. Only two guards are securing this area. They are standing on the point right above the main entrance and chat in English to counter the boredom. Gio stands on the doorstep of the floor and is not noticed by the guards. He is in the position on the right of the entrance and looks down through the metal railing, on the ballroom. It is nicely decorated with banners of the Sheffield foundation labeled with inspiring slogans. Flower baskets surrounding the dancefloor, a fancy buffet and a live band which are formed of omnics and humans define the appearance of the hall. The ball has already started and the speeches of the hosts are over. The opening speeches could have been a chance, but Gio thinks that the speeches were not the right moment to strike. The entire attention of the security would last on the Sheffields and he assumed that it would have been difficult to hit both targets at once. So, he planned to attack them in an unexpected moment, while the festivities are distracting them all. Gio watches the people in the hall and searches for the hosts, Ian and Cassandra Sheffield. The ball is open to everyone, but most of the ball guests are business partners and trusted friends of the Sheffields. Fancy groomed men in fine smokings and beautifully styled women in wickedly expensive dresses are the main group at this charity event. Gio even knows some people who have their ties to Talon, but most of them only peripherally or without knowing it. The thought that Sombra might blackmail some of these people with their own dirty laundry amuses him somehow. She already did this professionally and with a certain dedication when she was a child. Sombra understood early that information is power. This attitude of hers might lead to the assumption that the Mexican hacker beauty has a power-hungry, calculating personality, yet Gio believes hat she has a heart deep down. Some clues exist that support this claim.  
In Sergio's Talon times they spent rarely time together, but they enjoyed it. Sombra tended to visit him in his lab between missions, chatting vividly about everything. Still, they were careful that everyone who eavesdropped their conversations was not able to assume that they know each other for a very long time. Those chats were very important to Gio and he appreciated their old friendship. He is not certain if Sombra feels the same way, but his intuition tells him otherwise. Even though he wants to be cautious he cannot help but trust Sombra at a significant amount. Gio already forgot her little prank in Savannah. Until today, Gio has kept Sombra’s real identity secret as a loyal friend would do – or a loyal business partner. Sombra could betray him also and let Talon know that he is still alive, but it seems that she doesn’t. Gio believes strongly that Sombra has a sense of loyalty somewhere in her opportunistic mind. That would fit to the story where Sombra blackmailed Guillermo Portero, the CEO of LumériCo. She could have treated him as one of her “friends”, a puppet that helps her out when she demands it. Instead she leaked his entire plans to take over Mexico and how he was feeding corruption without hesitating. Sombra didn’t do that for her own but for the sake of her homeland and people.  
Gio scans the crowd on the dance floor for the Sheffields. The guests are currently chatting instead of dancing. He examines every single group until he finally finds them. Ian and Cassandra Sheffield stand with a small group at the side of the dance floor and seem to amuse themselves well. The blonde wife wears a rose-red, shoulder-free dress with shiny ornaments while the husband, wearing a simple, marine-blue suit and light-blue tie, lets his wife having the spotlight. A cute sight in Gio’s opinion, but nothing that will make him hold back. First, he needs to get rid of the guards on this floor to fulfill his plan undisturbed. His gaze rises from the dance floor and focuses the distracted guards in in his vicinity. Gio narrows his eyes and slowly moves towards them.


	11. 4-2 In a blink

Lena strolls through King’s Row and examines the shop windows. Emily surely waits for her with a fresh tea and a cordial hug. Lena closes her eyes and smiles. The thought warms her heart up. Even in those dark times she stays positive and appreciates the small things. A lot of years have passed since the disbandment of Overwatch and the world has sunken into darkness piece by piece. The tensions between omnics and humans after the Omnic Crisis were never so strong like today. Terrorism and corruption have increased over the past decade by significant amounts. Additionally, Talon which fought Overwatch even during the Golden Age gained a lot of power because of the absence of a real rival. Lena had to witness all those events and dedicated herself to fight injustice, protect the good in the world. Yet, she knows that her actions have just small impact compared to the calamity that is defining the present times. The recent times were mixed. Winston’s call for Overwatch’s reunion and the Christmas dinner at Watchpoint: Gibraltar were two delightful events for Lena. Winston is incessantly working on reuniting the surviving Overwatch agents. In the meantime, Lena stays in London with her girlfriend Emily and stays on standby until Winston demands her help, just like when they defended the Overwatch museum in Numbani. But at the same time something terrible happened: The assassination of Tekharta Mondatta, the leader of the Shambali, a spiritual group of omnics which believes in a harmonious co-existence of omnics and humans. Lena did her best to protect Mondatta’s “life” but the infamous Talon sniper “Widowmaker” accomplished her mission, nonetheless. Anger and disappointment ran through Lena’s heart, but she needed to recover quickly from this emotional incident. As a strong person, she did that in a knick of time and is back in the fight.  
Home should not be far now. Lena passes the entrance of the King’s Row Ballroom in which a charity ball is taking place right now. She notices the banner and smiles. The Sheffields organized this ball for their foundation. Lena knows the Sheffields personally and is convinced of their plans to make the world better. She admires Cassandra for her fortitude and beauty. For Ian, she has a lot of respect and appreciates his humor. While Lena strides along she listens to the joyful live music coming out of the ballroom. She minces past the main entrance, wearing her famous orange-yellow sport outfit and the light-brown leather jacket. A few guests notice her cheerful movements and raise their glasses towards her, smiling and waving. It is probable that some people recognize her. Lena’s contribution to Overwatch is firmly enshrined in the memories of the British people, regardless of the inglorious end of Overwatch. She is still a role model and admired by the young. Lena ineracts with the cheering guests by gesticulating happily, winking and swinging her hips gracefully to the music. When she reached a certain distance to the ballroom, she stops dancing and exhales amused. That was refreshing!  
Gio lays his light bolter on the railing, the barrel pointing on the dancefloor. He folds the holo sight of the weapon up and looks through it to acquire his targets, the Sheffields. Gio checks the actual shooting conditions which differ from the estimated. The overview is good, but he underestimated the distance. The sight of his light bolter is not designed for such a long range. Gio looks for an alternative sniper position but fails to find one. There is no turning back now. This is the chance that Sombra got him. He must stick with his chosen position. The Sheffields are still talking in a group, staying close to the conversation partners. The assassination is going to be quite noticeable and there is the risk to hit bystanders, not that Gio cares though. The people surrounding the Sheffields are just some greedy moneybags to him. The priority is to make the Sheffields leave the ballroom in two bodybags. Gio presses the bulky stock against his right shoulder, aims at Cassandra and focuses. The light energy pours out of his right hand into the grip. It flows through the silver cables, making them glow brightly in white. Then the exhausts on the side of the barrel begin to light up. The gun is fully operational and ready to fire. Now it’s getting serious.  
Gio holds the gun steady and aims at the head of the wife. Then he pulls the trigger. A highly energetic light bolt leaves the barrel with a loud hissing noise and travels extremely fast towards Cassandra Sheffield. The hissing noise is loud enough to make the crowd go silent, even the band stops playing. Gio checks the situation through his sight. Cassandra Sheffield sits on the floor holding her left shoulder. Under her hands are dark-red marks. Gio missed her head and shot her in the shoulder. Cassandra lifts her gaze up to Gio. Panicked, she points on him and shrills “Assassin!”. The crowd looks up, following her pointing finger. Then havoc breaks out. The guests scream and push each other while reaching for the exit. Cassandra is back on her feet and gets supported by her husband. Gio fires another shot which barely misses her head and hits the dancefloor, leaving a significant black trace in the parquet. The black-suited security guards throw themselves in front of the Sheffields to protect them from incoming shots. Gio ceases fire because randomly shooting at the black-suited mass in the hope of hitting the Sheffields is not going to be a sufficient solution. He needs to get closer. Fearlessly he jumps over the railing into the 40 meters under him. Gio uses his teleport mid-air, just like in Savannah, and lands skillfully on his two feet after the second flash. Gio is now in a good distance to the Sheffields, but the bodyguards are still in the way. Some more guards come from the sides to face him in close-quarters combat. Gio drops his gun and gives the bodyguards up close his full attention. With a series of evasions, light pulses from his hands and hard-hitting punches he knocks the charging bodyguards out. Then he quickly recovers his light bolter and notices the Sheffields at the backdoor of the ballroom accompanied by four guards. The heavy, wooden double door has an old-fashioned lock which the guards have trouble with. Breaking the door open with force seems very difficult. They are trapped. As a massive shot of the light bolter hits a guard who was trying to open the lock, the group before the backdoor splits up. The Sheffields hide behind a pillar while the remaining bodyguards pull out their handguns. From Gio’s left and right out of the staircase come more guards. Gio’s skill is going to be tested in its full extent immediately.  
Lena is already 300 meters away from the King’s Row Ballroom as she hears the screams of the fleeing guests. Strange shot noises disrupt the silence. Something terrible is happening in the ballroom! Lena teleports herself as fast as she can through the crowd in the direction of the ballroom.


	12. 4-3 Special guest

The floor around Gio is covered with black-suited bodies, riddled with bolter shots and regular bullets, struck by massive fists and ravaged with aggressive light energy. The last guard alive just got critically hit by light bolter shot in the heart and falls to the floor, the eyes opened wide. The Sheffields have no protection anymore. They are still hiding behind the pillar because they failed to open the backdoor. Gio hears the the pained whining of Cassandra Sheffield right behind the pillar. It is time to end this, once and for all. He walks menacingly towards the terrified couple until he has it entirely in his line of sight. They cling to each other and stare at Gio. Cassandra still holds her burned shoulder, a tear is running over her cheek. Ian simply stares in fear and presses his wife against his chest. Their fear is almost tangible. A pinch of sadism passes Gio’s mind as he watches the scene. He points his gun at the couple with such a determination. Cassandra’s groaning intensifies as she presses her face against the body of her husband. Ian is still staring at Gio, but then his focus changes to something behind Gio. His expression lightens up. Hope shines in his eyes. At first, Gio ignores that, but at the moment when he pulls the trigger a blue lighting bolt flashes through his line of sight and bumps his weapon aside. Instead of the Sheffields he hits the pillar which they were using as cover. Surprisedly Gio turns around and tries to follow the unknown blue light trace. Suddenly the sound of energy-driven pistols from his left catches his attention. Gio teleports himself out of the line of fire in a superhuman reflex. Another blue light bolt comes from the shot direction towards the black avenger and materializes within a moment right in front of Gio. It’s is a woman: Athletic, short stature. Orange-yellow sport suit. Brown leather jacket. Highly modern pulse pistols. Sporty eyewear. Brown short hair. Angry look. Tracer.   
Gio calculated every possible outcome, but not that a former Overwatch agent would join the party and interrupt his little plan, especially such a famous one. Tracer narrows her eyes and aims her pistols at Gio. She is obviously furious. Lena Oxton, aka “Tracer”, is of course known to Gio. She has the reputation to be an exceptional Overwatch agent and a resolute force of good. Gio knows the stories around her person, but he naturally never had the chance to meet her. Her chrono accelerator is extremely interesting for the engineer in Gio but is is clear that he will not have the opportunity to talk with her about it. Tracer defends the Sheffields, even though they are affiliated to Talon. Gio is sure that Tracer cares for Ian’s and Cassandra’s life because she fell for their generous façade. He assumes that it’s impossible to convince her otherwise, so it must be the showdown. “Why can’t the violence stop for once?”, she yells without expecting an answer and fires a burst of energy pellets from her pistols. Gio catches them in a stasis shield and throws them back at Tracer. In the very last moment, she dodges the shots by blinking. She surely did not expect such an ability. “Ha! Not an ordinary assassin I see.”, she speaks and continues to fire at Gio who still tries to hit her with her deflected own shots. Even with his teleportation ability he will not be able to match Tracer’s mobility. His teleportation frequency is just not as fast as Tracer’s. She tries to outmaneuver him and get the angle to shoot Gio past the shield. Every second the energetically squeaky blinking sound of her chrono accelerator chimes, accompanied by pulse pistol burst noises. Gio is standing completely still and concentrating at Tracer’s movements. He doesn’t even use his light bolter because he knows that he cannot hit her with such a mobility. Just one mistake would cost him his life.   
During one attack, Tracer gets cocky. Gio is able to predict a teleportation and has his shield up before she fires. Too fast for Tracer’s reflexes, he reflects the shots. The energy pellets hit her skinny legs. Tracer screams in pain and teleports behind a nearby pillar. She groans with grief. “Don’t think that you tear me down that easily!”, she shouts angrily through the empty ballroom. A short echo of her call chimes. Suddenly, the humming sound of an approaching aircraft interrupts the silence outside. The locked backdoor gets blown open by a huge explosion. Some not recognizable figures run through the resulting smoke coming from the door. They seem to head for the Sheffields. A moment later the smoke clears a bit and Gio sees who just entered the party. He will never forget his own armor designs and the persons are wearing them. Talon soldiers! They obviously want to save the Sheffields. Gio has to prevent them from completing their mission! Gio furiously grinds his teeth and aims his light bolter at the soldier group which is trying to extract the Sheffields. Right at that moment he hears a strange noise on his left – The direction where Gio hit Tracer with her own burst. He looks surprisedly at the blue-shining anomaly which distorts the air. Out of the sudden Tracer materializes out of that anomaly shouting enragedly. She throws a beeping, blinking object at Gio. It is one of her famous pulse bombs. Tracer used the distraction of the blasted door and even healed her injured legs with her “recall”. Obviously, she didn’t notice that it is not the rescue service who is saving the Sheffields. Gio instantly drops his light bolter and raises his hand in direction of the flying pulse bomb. He stops the pulse bomb with his stasis shield, just mere inches before hitting his chest. Tracer pauses with astonishment as she sees her pulse bomb hanging in the milky-glowing stasis shield. Gio’s and Tracer’s eyes meet. His white eyes stare into her brown ones, protected behind her sporty glasses. Gio fiercely wrinkles his nose and turns to the Sheffields who get escorted by the Talon soldiers. He gives the pulse bomb a boost with his light power and launches it in direction of the Sheffields. “No!”, Tracer shouts upset and teleports after it to destroy the bomb with her pulse pistols. Before she can pull the triggers, she notices the Sheffields getting escorted by Talon soldiers through the blown-up door. Now she realizes that she in fact helped the bad ones by preventing Gio from executing his assassination and getting the Sheffields the time window to escape. Paralyzed by the realization, she does not pull the triggers and the pulse bomb explodes. The Sheffields make it unharmed outside, but Tracer’s chrono accelerator gets damaged due to the nearby explosion. The left side of the device is torn up and the center of the device is pulsating irregularly. It is not capable of holding back her “chronal disassociation”. Tracer falls to her knees mourning and desperately tries to hold her device together to prevent herself from getting lost in time again. Her body blurs and she feels how her cells get distorted by time. While Tracer is fighting for her existence, Gio leaves the ballroom through the blown-up backdoor to head for the courtyard behind the building. He must witness how the Sheffields escape in a Talon aircraft. Gio’s mission failed.


	13. 4-4 Aftermath

He snorts angrily and shakes his head. Then he notices Tracer in the ballroom who tried to stand up and is now leaning on one knee while fighting with her chrono accelerator. Gio’s energetic perception detects that Tracer is losing the fight. He rallies his light powers and marches determinedly towards Tracer. Then he grabs her with his massive hands. Tracer screams in pain and groans while her existence is getting devoured by time. She doesn’t even resist Gio because she knows that she has no chance to beat him now.   
Even if Gio knows that it is Tracer’s fault that the Sheffields got away alive he doesn’t blame her for stepping in because she was just doing her duty. She thought that she was serving the good, but she ended up helping the bad without knowing it in the first place. Sergio was not different back then. He contributed his part out of conscientiousness and ignored that his technology was not used for protection but for war. Gio sees parallels between Tracer and Sergio. Tracer is actually fighting the same enemies as Gio, for similar reasons. So, he doesn’t plan to kill her. He needs to figure something out to bring her device in a state that can stabilize her “chronal disassociation”. With his skilled engineer-eyes Gio examines her chronal accelerator through the nasty distortions. He quickly developes a provisional solution.   
Still, Gio needs to buy time for her. His light energy might be more versatile then he thinks. He focuses his powers and tries to counter the energy that she is exposed. And it really works! He can “freeze” Tracer in a stasis field from his hands and slow down the devouring process. It consumes a lot of energy, so he has to act fast. While he is focusing her in the stasis shield, he uses his brutal force to pull the torn-up parts of the device frame together. Gio only has to bend the broken frame parts into a shape that can be fastened. As he forms the burned metal, he grinds his teeth and shouts intensely. His light powers are fading. Tracer is just standing with her mouth open before him, frozen between time and light. Gio is forming hooks out of the loose metal frame parts and pulls them together with all the strength he has. Before his light powers cease and Tracer gets lost in time, he hooks the parts in and releases Tracer out of the stasis field. She drops on the floor coughing. Then she stands up and hectically touches her body to prove that she really is physically existent. Tracer concludes amazed that she is stable and lowers her look at the brute craft that Gio made. The broken frame parts are formed like bulky fishhooks that enable enough energy flow and stability to make the chrono accelerator fulfill his function. The blue center of the device is glowing steadily. It is neither professional, nor pretty-looking but is works. Tracer is surprised that Gio did not use the opportunity to kill her or just let time chew her up. She doesn’t understand his motives but is infinitely grateful. Tracer lifts her eyes in astonishment to the tall Gio who sovereignly returns the look while picking up his light bolter. “Sorry about that earlier!”, he says in English and Tracer nods gently. “Better get that fixed as soon as possible”, he adds. The sound of nearby ringing sirens chimes. Gio winks without any other motion in his face and disappears in a bright flash. “Wait!”, she shouts after him, extending her arm in direction of the flash. The energy of Gio’s teleportation elicits a soft wind which curls around Tracer’s legs. She draws her arm back and folds her hands on the center of her chrono accelerator. Her look wanders to the ground and she whispers smoothly: “Thank you…”.  
Tracer’s rescue cost Gio a lot of energy, but he has the aspiration to not let himself be stopped by that. He retreats to a little apartment in London that he rented with the help of an old Talon contact and reflects his situation. His mission failed, the Sheffields escaped and Talon laughs up its sleeves. Sombra provided the information for a high price and he was not able to capitalize on them. Gio knows exactly that Sombra is going to mock him and will not help him with Talon anymore until he brings new information about the god programs to the table. Just the imagination of Sombra laughing at him irritates Gio because he is proud of his skills and, as a perfectionist, he never wanted to show any sign of weakness.   
Two days pass which Gio spent recuperating. He tackled the light bolter and has developed solutions to enhance the sight of the rifle: It is going to be a modern scope like it should have been in the first place. Maybe he also should build a whole new weapon based on the light bolter concept. A hand gun might be useful in case he doesn’t want to carry his bulky main weapon on a mission where he still needs some firepower aside of his light abilities. During those two days he pays attention to the news. Of course, media is full of reports about the assault attempt on the Sheffields. Interestingly, there is no arrest warrant against him and barely any descriptions of him. Could Tracer possibly have protected him? At least, Gio doesn’t have to worry about being hunted.   
On the third day, something peculiar happens. Someone knocks on Gio’s door. He opens the door and a friendly smiling postman stands before him, holding a package wrapped in brown paper. Like it is self-explanatory the young man gives him the package and says goodbye while he returns to his vehicle. Gio surely did not expect to receive mail. In fact, nobody knows that he is staying at this place. Maybe the postman confused the apartment doors, but the package is labelled with his complete name: “Sergio Ramirez Pardo”. Baffledly Gio closes the door and turns the package in his hands. Whatever the content is, it is very light and flat. It doesn’t seem like a bomb or something similar. Gio lays the package on the table and pulls the thin string that holds the paper together to reveal the content. It is a newspaper bundle of the “King’s Row Times” and a rectangular card made of thick, white paper. Gio ignores the newspaper at first and pays special attention to the card. He picks it up and stare on the blank front, then he turns it around and is astonished. The words “Feliz cumpleaños” are written on the back in a neat, fine handwriting. Confusedly he puts the card on the table and grabs the newspaper, expecting to finally understand the message of the mail. Having the card in mind, Gio looks at the date of the newspaper: It is indeed Gio’s birthday. He forgot his own birthday because he has more important things to care about than personal festive days. Still, Gio finds it surprisingly pleasant. Next, he takes a look at the front page of the newspaper and immediately knows that the rest of it is irrelevant as he reads the headline: “Cassandra and Ian Sheffield killed in car accident!”. Highly interested, Gio reads the article and learns about the circumstances of the crash: The driver was an Omnic who seemed to have a severe malfunction and steered the vehicle against a tree at high speed, killing the passengers. Gio puts the newspaper away and smirks. He looks out of the window and lifts his gaze to the sky. Gio knows exactly who he has to thank for the birthday present.


	14. 5-1 Old friend, new opportunities

It’s time to get to work again. Gio needs to figure out another way to get his hands on new information that he can share with Sombra to keep the deal going. Maybe he can make contact to omnic factions from the underground that are connected to the deepest institutions of the omnics. Gio has an idea how to get a chance for the obtainment of such information and who he needs to get in touch with. At the very same evening of his birthday, Gio heads into Downtown London to meet up with an old informant who is a sympathizer of Talon and is still grateful to the old Sergio Ramirez. His inventiveness had a lot of admirers back in his Talon days and some people even commissioned him personally. The helpful Sergio finished a lot of orders and was able to broaden his horizon. He learned about tailoring and even medical technology like for example cybernetics. He saved some lives and facilitated restarting some with innovative implants. His knowledge made him understand Doomfist’s cybernetic fist and Sombra’s neuro implants. Outside of his private commissions, he was responsible for Talon’s military equipment while Moira was leading the medical research.   
Gio enters the agreed meeting point, a fancy bar named “The Majesty’s Fort”. As he walks through the bright bar and greets the fine-dressed omnic at the entrance door by simply nodding, Gio has his hands hidden in the coat pockets the entire time. The bar is in a fine district of Downtown where the rich people usually do their businesses and amuse themselves. The chessboard-like, black and white floor is extremely clean and impressively shiny. Red leather covers the seats and round stools. The bartender is a beautiful, blonde woman in a white blouse with tempting, red lips and sapphire-like eyes. She smiles at the tall, black-dressed avenger and Gio can’t help but pull his bandana down to return the gesture as a gentleman should do. In front of her sits the currently only guest. Gio recognizes him as the informant, a relatively tall, lean man with a pale complexion wearing a black suit. He always had his dark-blonde hair well-groomed and wears black-framed, modern glasses that somehow let him look younger than he is. The man sits at the counter deeply relaxed, having a drink. Gio sits down to his left side and looks down to him, trying to make eye contact. The man just stares at the tall glass in front of him, filled with a white, creamy liquid. He grabs it and takes a sip. “Milk?”, Gio asks skeptically. Without even turning to him, the man responds, “Criticizing a gentleman’s favorite drink?”. Gio smirks. “What would you like to drink, sir?”, the pretty bartender asks with her soothing voice and a fine British accent. Gio hesitates for a moment, then he coolly responds, “A gentleman’s favorite drink”. She giggles and within a moment she serves him a tall glass of milk. “Good choice”, the informant says and turns to Gio. He widens his eyes in surprise. “Mister Ramirez, you look quite different than the last time we’ve met…”. “Not the first time I hear this.”, Gio answers dryly. “Huh, I bet. Didn’t hear from you in a while.”. James Fitzgerald is an American businessman working for the British company Hawthorne PLC which is specialized on material manufacturing for military purposes. He is a good friend of Gio’s and admirably good informed of Talon’s activities. The company itself has been a loyal ally for a long time and provides Talon’s equipment producers with resources. It is also known for having connections to other famous weapon manufacturers. James is usually very well informed, but he will not know what happened to Sergio Ramirez and so thinks that he still works for Talon. “I had some health issues. Got to take a time off.”. “Whaaat? You out of all people?”, James asks. He remembers Sergio to be one of the most reliable workers among Talon’s R&D unit. Gio shrugs his shoulders. “It’s complicated. But Moira treated me”. He swallows his anger about the story and stays cool. “Uhh! That explains the white eyes… And the rest.”, James acknowledges. Mentioning Moira made Gio’s story more realistic. James knows her and her special experiments. Gio’s “death” was kept secret because the message that the R&D unit kills one of their best scientists in obscure experiments would not shed a good light upon it. Gio uses this circumstance to his advantage. “How is your brother?”, Gio asks. James smiles slightly and answers, “Adam? He is just fine. His sax play has improved a lot and he is on tour with his band in the States.”. Gio nods contently and takes a big swallow from his milk glass. James’ older brother Adam Fitzgerald is a jazz musician and lost his arm years ago in a car accident. Gio created a prothesis that is precise enough to let him play the saxophone on an impressive level. James corrects his glasses and takes another sip of milk. “So, old friend. What’s on your mind?”. Gio calmly drinks another swallow of milk. After he puts the glass down, Gio speaks to James, “It seems that an omnic faction wants to declare war to Talon.”. James hesitates. “Is that so? Well, can’t say that the omnics are always trustworthy, but yeah.”. James continues while holding his milk glass in his right hand, “What leads you to that suspicion?”. “The death of the Sheffields. We are convinced that it was a suicide assassination.”. Sombra has created the perfect ruse for Gio’s next steps. James smirks slightly. “I had the feeling that their death wasn’t a tragic coincidence. That would actually make sense.”, he responds contemplatively. Gio remains silent while James takes another sip out of his milk glass. Then the businessman continues. “I mean, the Sheffields were doing business with companies who supply the anti-omnic armies in Russia. The Russian omnium profits from the death of the two investors.”. Gio understands to which incident James is referring. He speaks of the new awakening of the Russian omnium that is building new war omnics and caused another Omnic Crisis in Russia several weeks ago. The Russian army is fighting against the omnic threat and therefore needs military equipment, leading to a new boom of the weapon-manufacturing sector. James frowns. “But if you think that I might have a clue who it could be, I must disappoint you.”. Gio slowly shakes his head. “That is not why I arranged this meeting.”. Gio folds his hands and leans on the counter while James keeps the eye contact. “I know that Hawthorne has close business ties to some omnic-weapon providers. Is there a way to facilitate me investigations for Talon regarding your business acquaintances?”, Gio speaks sovereignly with his deep voice. James falters and lowers his gaze to the counter, then helplessly looks at the pretty barkeeper lady that was standing in front of the two gentlemen, silently listening to the conversation. She casually raised her eyebrows and smiles with her flashy-red lips. Hawthorne PLC is known for being a company that dislikes the omnics but in reality, they are having business together. Hawthorne is not the only company that does that though. James returns his look to Gio and grabs his glass. “I keep underestimating you, old friend.”, James speaks and drinks. Gio shrugs his shoulders. “I am not just an engineer anymore, Fitz.”, Gio responds with a determined intonation. “Yeah, I see! Hmm, well then… I actually have a special opportunity upcoming that might be just what you need.”. “Enlighten me!”. James puts his empty glass down and orders another one. While the bartender serves the milk, James explains, “Because of the rather heated discussion among some weapon providers about contracts, a big meeting was arranged to settle the dispute. Of course, everything exclusive to companies and hidden from the public due to obvious reasons.”. If the public would acknowledge that the human providers of the anti-omnic armies are doing war business with their omnic opponents, it would lead to a major scandal and outcry. James continues, “The meeting is in three days in Paris. You will find some interesting contacts there, I’m sure.”. Gio likes this opportunity but detects a little flaw. “If it is so exclusive like you claim, I won’t get in there as a Talon member.”. James raises his left hand. “Don’t you worry! I’ma find a way to get you in. As long as you stay nice and calm everything should work out just fine.”, James promises. Gio nods. “Alright. I’ll expect the details on my holopad. I will leave you now.”, he speaks and James answers with a simple nod of his. Gio finishes his glass of milk and stands up from the stool. As he grabs into his coat pockets James raises his hand and shakes his head. “Drinks on me.”, he says. Gio stops rummaging in the pockets. “By the way.”, James carries on, “Watch out for this Sombra woman. Heard that she doesn’t stick to the rules and knows more than is healthy for her. She is unpredictable and therefore a threat.”. Gio is amused as he already knows that very well. “Thanks for the warning.”. Gio nods friendly to the barkeeper lady who responds by smiling gracefully and he heads out, pulling his bandana over his nose as he leaves the bar.


	15. 5-2 Into the darkness

Already on the next day Gio receives a message from James. “Flight is tomorrow. Be ready!”, it says. Attached to the message is a digital flight ticket with Paris as destination. Gio trusts James enough to not ask for the details. He is sure that his old informant set everything up for him because he usually always did when he helped Talon out. Gio heads into the city again and gets himself a tailor-made pitch-black suit to be appropriately dressed for a shady but fancy conference between military equipment providers. The next early morning Gio goes to the airport and meets up with Hawthorne’s representatives. As Gio arrives finely dressed and with his serious look in his eyes, a representative looks up to the intimidating avenger in the black suit. Astonished by Gio’s appearance, the representative remains silent while staring at Gio who returns the look without saying anything either. After some seconds the representative in a grey suit says, “You must be the security guy Mister Fitzgerald talked about…”. James has picked a perfectly fitting role for him. Gio nods and says in a deep tone, “At your service.”. The flight via a very noble equipped private jet proceeds as scheduled and the business group of Hawthorne arrives on time in Paris. The arranged hotel is as expected an expensive one in the core of Paris, beside of the Champs-Élysées. Gio gets his own room, but because he is just a bodyguard, he doesn’t get a fine suite like the representatives do, not that he cares. Gio has only brought basic belongings and his building tools for weapons. He still has some time to kill, so he dedicates himself to build the light-energy powered handgun. Through some black-market contacts, he got himself the necessary weapon parts and resources in London before he took the flight to Paris. The dark avenger uses his ingenious weapon engineering skills to build a functioning handgun based on his light bolter in the evening and early night, hidden away in his hotel room. The conference is going to be tomorrow evening. Gio is well prepared in general, but he will definitely try to get as much information as possible out of the representatives to get more concrete data about the guests and the event itself. In the afternoon of the next day, Gio gets a call on his room phone and is informed about the approaching departure from the hotel to the conference. He heads down to the front door, of course wearing his black suit and hiding his special new gun under his jacket. Hawthorne came with three representatives and in total four security companions including Gio. It was a high-ranking superior and his two assistants. The superior insists to have two bodyguards protecting him. Gio is assigned to one of the assistants, the exact same person that stared at him at the airport in London. Three black limousines of a noble brand with tinted windows are parked in front of the hotel, one for each representative. The superior orders the departure and everybody gets into their allocated vehicles. While the convoy tries to find a fast way through the traffic jams of the city center, Gio seeks the conversation with the assistant sitting next to him on the backseat who still has a lot of respect before the tall man who’s head almost touches the ceiling of the car. “Who hosts the conference”, Gio asks neutrally. The man hesitates. “Well, uhh…”. Nervously he scratches his neck. “The place is run by a very powerful omnic faction from France.”. That is a vague information, but Gio has a feeling whose faction it is. “Maximilien?”, he asks confidently. The representative is obviously surprised of Gio’s knowledge. “How…”. “We have crossed paths once. Hard to forget his gambling talent.”, interrupts Gio the man before he could ask. In fact, Sergio has met Maximilien several times because he was part of Talon’s inner council as well as Maximilien was back then and is until the present day. It makes sense that Maximilien hosts this weapon trading conference as he took over the role of Antonio Bartalotti who was Talon’s most prominent European weapon smuggler eight years ago before he got killed by Blackwatch. Turns out that the conference is at least partially hosted by Talon itself. Brilliant! “I understand. As the owner of a casino in Monaco, he is naturally a great gambler.”, the representative responds slightly amused. “Yet, he only provided us with the place, but he is not going to be present himself. Just agents will be there, acting in his name.”, he continues. Gio nods. “I guess that his premises are not publicly visitable?”, the avenger asks. “No, no. Certainly not. You will be quite surprised when you see it.”.   
After some more minutes in the traffic the limousine stops, and the driver gets off the car to open the door of the representative. Gio must open his door himself as he is “just” a security guard. The dusk is slowly immersing the skyline of Paris in a dark blue and the first stars shine from above. Gio is astonished as he acknowledges the place they have arrived at. It is none lesser than the famous cathedral of Notre-Dame. “I told you that you are going to be impressed.”, the representative speaks to him as he walks past Gio to enter the cathedral. The group enters the cathedral which has restricted access right now. So, no tourists are allowed to visit the cathedral at the moment. A sign at the main door suggests an exclusive divine service. A middle-aged man dressed like a priest lets the group in and leads them through the impressive halls of the popular cathedral. Interestingly, it was empty. The conference should start in the next hour and no other groups seem to be around. Gio skeptically follows the group and the priest who vividly speaks to the superior. They reach a statue of a to Gio unknown human surrounded of many candles. It seems to be a memorial of someone. The statue holds a globe in his hands. The priest whispers, “Pour Dieu et notre pays.”, and presses the spot on the globe where France is on the world map. The France-shaped button sinks into the globe and a mechanical noise appears. The base platform with the statue and the candles on it moves aside and reveals an entrance leading to a dark staircase. The group descents into the darkness and finds a huge, fancy-equipped conference room with a long, modernly designed table in the middle, capable of displaying holographic images. Finely dressed omnics are walking with silver trays serving drinks and canapés to the present conference participants. The chairs around the table are almost all occupied which means that the Hawthorne group is actually the last to arrive. Gio silently exits the staircase and lets his eye wander over the scene. The omnics have their own impressively well-armed security force standing around in the hall, but still a lot of the guests insist to bring their own beefy companions. There seems to be a certain level of mistrust among the business partners, yet everybody tolerates the general paranoia. He pays attention to the representatives of the companies. It truly is a very diverse mixture of people sitting at the huge table, drinking champagne and organic oil while mumbling with known business partners sitting beside them. Different omnic groups and human delegations from different countries as well as companies are participating in this shady reunion. Even from very well-known companies: Gio spots an old-established, extravagant businessman of Volskaya Industries. He finds it quite interesting that Volskaya is taking part in such a conference involving so many omnic factions. But they might want to talk to some human business partners regarding the new Russian Omnic Crisis. Gio sees that he is accompanied by three people sitting next to him: Two rather young assistants wearing dark business suits and a beautiful woman with short, ruby-red hair and dark complexion. She wears a white, attractively tight cocktail dress and flashy high heels. Gio knows that this guy is quite a poser, but bringing his Latin playmate with him to a secret weapon trader conference? He shortly shakes his head in disappointment. After scanning the audience, he looks around for other points of interest in the room. When he interpreted the information of the representative back in the car correctly, this is not just a secret convention hall but an entire hideout of a prominent omnic faction. There are two sealed automatic doors made of thick, dark metal left and right of the holographic table. Gio is curious about what is behind those doors. He could probably make some connections with some guests, but he would act suspiciously if he would talk to other representatives. This is not a party after all. The left door opens and an omnic wearing a black, tailored suit with a red tie enters the room accompanied by two tall omnic guards that are even taller than Gio. The mumbling within the audience ceases as the omnic sits down at the end of table. He obviously is the moderator of the negotiations. While the representatives are all gathered around the table, the security guards of the factions are standing at the walls in the gloomy light right behind their group. Lucky for Gio, his group is sitting relatively close to the left door. The moderator begins the discussion. After some minutes, the lights in the hall start to flicker. “Don’t worry, dear friends! This plant is still relatively new and needs some adjustments.”. The lights stabilize and the omnic moves on, introducing the situation and picking up first opinions from his guests. After some more minutes the lights suddenly shut down completely and it gets dark in the conference room. Just the little lights of the omnics are slightly illuminating the hall. A bit of annoyed discussion happens while the moderator yet again tries to calm the groups down. Gio looks around and suddenly hears the faint hissing sound of the door to his side. Somehow it opened! The dark avenger benefits from the power outage and slips through the open door. After he passed it, the light goes on again and the door behind him closes silently. What a luck!   
Gio is standing in an impressively long hallway with a lot of automatic doors. Most of them are closed, but one door nearby is open. Gio sneaks towards the door as he acknowledges activity in the room and presses himself against the wall beside it. Then he dares to take a glimpse inside. It is a very modern office, but that is not what immediately catches his interest as he looks inside. He spots a person that is quite familiar to him as he saw her in the conference room a few moments ago. It is the beautiful Volskaya playmate in her pretty dress. She infiltrated the plant and is now setting up for further exploration. Gio watches her folding the thin shoe heel, turning her delicate, white high heels into ballerinas. While she rummages in her luxury handbag, Gio pulls his light-powered handgun out and sneaks into the room to confront her. Before he is in melee range, she turns around in an impressively fast reflex and points a suppressed machine pistol at Gio’s forehead who at the same time raises his gun to aim at her head. Their eyes meet. They both hesitate and stare at each other for a short moment. Then the woman starts to laugh maliciously in a manner that is highly familiar to Gio. “Gio! What a surprise to see you here!”, she vividly speaks, and her dark-red lips form a smile that only one woman on this planet has. “Sombra.”, Gio answers dryly.


	16. 5-3 Luz y Sombra

Completely synchronously they lower their guns. “It’s very unusual to see you in a formal suit.”, she says and continues after a short break. “¡Te queda muy bien!”, she speaks in a subtly flirty tone. Gio discreetly winks and responds, “Nice dress.”. Sombra giggles flattered. Then she takes her wig off and shakes her head to free her black and purple mane on her right head side. Gio would bet money on it that Sombra is also responsible for the power outage. “How did you get in here anyways? Wait! Don’t say anything!”, she interrupts. “Fitzgerald?”. Gio shrugs his shoulders. Of course, she knows him. “I knew it!”, she cheers and stuffs the wig into her handbag. “And you? How come to Volskaya?”, he asks with his deep voice. Sombra chuckles. “I have una amiga in the company who owes me a favor. And when I can have an easy way in, I won’t say no to it.”, she answers casually. Sombra is right. Infiltrating this compound would have been very difficult, especially when not knowing about the France-shaped button in the globe of the statue. What she has to do with Volskaya is something that Gio doesn’t know for certain, but he is pretty sure that she is blackmailing someone in a high place to get benefits – her usual procedure. After Gio doesn’t respond, Sombra keeps on asking. “And also, why are you here?”. “This base is more interesting than those shady moneybags.”. Sombra raises a brow. “That’s right. But still, what are you expecting to find here?”. Now that Gio thinks about it, it actually is more a spontaneous exploration. “I would have found something.”, he coolly responds. Sombra looks skeptically at him. “You know that most of the things you are going to find here are only digitally available and hidden behind strong firewalls? Your little amateur hacking is not going to be enough.”. Gio knows that she is right as the omnics are naturally working with even more and also more complex digital technology than humanity is. Yet it is worth the try to scavenge the base for some dirty laundry regarding the god programs, Maximilien or Talon. In the worst case, Gio would have just interrogated someone from the conference. “Don’t worry, Sombra! I would have found non-digital ways to get information.”. “I bet.”, she answers with an annoyed intonation. Sombra definitely doubts Gio’s approach. She breathes through. “You know what? We have the same goals I suppose. You might need someone at your side that knows a few things about tech, and I might need someone who has my back when I need it. Why don’t we team up?”, she asks grinning conspiratorially. Even for Gio who prefers to work alone, this proposal is just too rational to decline it. He simply nods to accept her offer. Sombra’s purple eyes light up. She raises her left hand and points her index finger at Gio like she wants to warn him. Her elegant posture hardens. “But this time, grandullón, we do it my style.”, Sombra speaks viciously and slowly walks toward the tall avenger. “That means no shootings and no explosions, comprendes?”, she stops right before him and looks into his eyes like she could kill him with that gaze. She obviously has been keeping track of his activities with an impressive precision. Gio stays motionless and returns the look. “Your data from Savannah was only partially useful, because you have attracted so much attention that Helix reinforced their firewalls and changed some passwords you have send me. I don’t want that you ruin this opportunity right here for me!”, she insists. Gio might be stubborn sometimes, but he knows that she is in the right. He got himself into trouble for hunting down Dawson and caused quite a stir when he tried to assassinate the Sheffields. This time he can prove that he is capable of working stealthily. “Lead the way.”, he answers. Sombra chuckles shortly and turns around. She looks over her shoulder and signals Gio to follow her with a smooth hand gesture.  
Sombra and Gio sneak through the hallway while Sombra is leading the duo. She obviously planned to hit this base for a while, so she knows her way around surprisingly well. Sombra leads them to a sealed room marked with omnic letters Gio cannot read. The hacker beauty hacks the code of the keypad beside of the door and it opens with a faint hissing sound. Gio carefully looks inside and sees why Sombra lead them here first: It is a security room with monitors and keyboards. Gio would have been very surprised if this base didn’t have any security measures. Good thing is that most of the security guards should be in the conference room right now. For some reason there is no one occupying the security room. Sombra steps in and heads straight for the control panel. “We don’t want anyone to interrupt us, so…”, she begins and touches a processor which lights up in purple. Sombra is not using the keyboards of the security room but her own neuro implants to hack the devices. Before her face appears a purple-glowing, holographic keyboard that her implants generate. While she types on her holographic keyboard Gio speaks, “This is Maximilien’s hideout.”. Without looking away from her holograms Sombra responds, “Yeah. So?”. Gio is surprised of her plump answer. “He is a Talon Inner Council member.”. Sombra raises a brow. “Ohh, do you think that I shouldn’t hack into his private storages, because he shares my affiliation?”. She chuckles briefly. “You know, a lot of Talon members still hide their secrets before the organization. And you should know well enough that I love secrets.”. She continues, “And another thing. You know Olivia pretty well…”. Sombra stops typing and turns her face to Gio. “…But you don’t know Sombra.”. Gio suddenly has flashbacks of his meeting with James in “The Majesty’s Fort”. He remains silent as she focusses again on typing. Her actions are indeed mysterious. Even though Gio is convinced that Sombra takes his requests seriously, he cannot trust her entirely because of her opportunistic traits. She could as well just use him as a pawn in her little games. Gio can see some change on the displays of the security room. Sombra is slowly taking out the security systems. “No cameras, no sensors and no turrets for you.”, she whispers as she completes the final adjustments. “They won’t know what hit them.”, Sombra speaks and lets her holographic panel disappear. The displays in the control room shut down. “NO SIGNAL”, the few displays say which remain on. “Vamos.”, Sombra speaks determined to her tall partner and turns around to leave the room. Gio follows her with his special handgun in his hand, ready for action.  
They sneak through the hallways and rooms of the labyrinth that this compound turns out to be. Good thing is that Sombra knows what she is looking for. Her hacking skill surely came in handy as they pass a lot of areas that are riddled with security systems. Thanks to Sombra those systems are now only room decoration. Gio fulfills his role as he silently takes out an omnic that almost spotted Sombra while she was hacking another keypad to open a sealed automatic door. After half an hour of snooping around, Sombra stops in front of another door with a strange Omnic mark above its door frame. Her eyes light up and she smiles. “Found you.”, she whispers. Gio makes a low humming noise. Sombra understands what he wants. “It’s a data room. If they have some dirty laundry, this is the best spot to dig it up.”, she responds to Gio’s hum. Then Sombra hacks the keypad within a moment. The automatic door opens and Gio looks inside. Huge blocks of data storages and servers stand in straight lines in the relatively big room. The room is filled with faint beeping sounds and blinking lights. Aside of that there seems to be nobody else in the room. Gio indicates Sombra with a simple head gesture to step inside first. She grins and thanks Gio for his gentleman-like behavior. The man follows her and closes the door by pressing the keypad inside. Sombra immediately gets to work and starts to hack a storage block. She crouches down and touches it to get a connection, then again the purple-glowing holographic keyboard and a screen pop up before her face. Gio patiently waits while Sombra types on her holo-keyboard. She is very concentrated and sometimes makes acknowledging sounds. “Found something?”, Gio asks after a few minutes. Without turning her eyes away from the purple-glowing screen, she answers, “Enough.”. After another few minutes she disbands her holograms and stands up. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”. Gio nods and they leave the room. “What now?”, Gio asks as they sneak around. “A drink or two?”, Sombra casually responds. So, she got enough data to work with and now it’s time to retreat, of course undetected. Sombra guides Gio to a very large room that turns out to be a multi-purpose storage area with a garage and an exit gate. During Sombra’s usual keypad hacking, Gio gets curious about the data she has retrieved. “What data did you get?”. Sombra hesitates for a short moment. “All kinds of transaction and communication logs. Some of them are unusual, so I paid a lot of attention to those. When we are out of here, I am going to analyze them.”. The door to the storage room opens and Gio goes in first to check if there is someone inside. Sombra continues with her sentence as she walks through the door. “Luckily, their firewalls were pretty weak, so…”. She abruptly interrupts her little speech and stops right behind Gio. Something is unusual. Gio stops too and looks around briefly, aiming his gun. After he fails to find something that catches his attention, he looks over his shoulder at Sombra. “Sombra? Are you okay?”, he asks without moving any further. Sombra doesn’t react at all to his question. Gio turns around to look for her. Sombra just stands there completely motionless and stares statically into the vastness. Gio narrows his eyes. Something is fishy! Suddenly Sombra’s rigid look focuses on Gio. She starts to giggle maliciously, and it turns into a mad laughter. Gio is confused and just stands before her, waiting for her to calm down. After a few seconds she stops laughing and looks at Gio with an insane smile on her face. “Never have been better.”, she responds with a strangely sadistic undertone. Gio notices that her Mexican accent is somehow missing. Then suddenly she pulls out her submachine gun and opens fire.


	17. 5-4 Marioneta

Gio has the reflexes to catch her entire clip in a stasis shield. Sombra reacts surprised and goes into invisibility while Gio launches her bullets into the floor. The automatic door closes. She obviously sealed the door to prevent him from fleeing. But this action is senseless, because he could just teleport himself through the door. Her behavior is strange and highly concerning. He raises his gun and looks around in hectic. Sombra is still in the storage area. Gio can tell because he can hear her laughter in his vicinity. She shouts, “It worked! I can’t believe it worked!”. “What worked?”, Gio asks. “Ohh, I just might have successfully hacked a state-of-the-art neuro implant and taken over the control of your little lady here.”, she responds, ending the sentence with another mad laughter. So, Sombra got hacked. As odd as this sounds, it is seemingly true. “Who are you?”, Gio asks even though he doubts that he'll get an answer. And indeed, the response is another evil guffaw. A moment later a stack of crates falls over and catches Gio’s attention. He aims at it and suddenly Sombra comes out of her invisibility right behind him. “I am over here”, she says melodically and raises her machine pistol. From such a short distance, Gio would probably not be fast enough to catch those bullets. But before she can shoot, something strange happens. She struggles to fire the gun like someone is blocking her finger muscles. Desperately she tries to pull the trigger, but she just can’t. In the meantime, Gio turns around and disarms her with a massive swing against her weapon arm. She falls to the ground by the massive impact and drops her gun. Before Gio can get to her, Sombra jumps on her machine pistol and translocates away. She must have had translocators in her handbag. Gio knows that she still is going to be in his vicinity. From somewhere in the big storage room he hears her laughter again. “How cute! Your girl is trying to block my protocols and saved you.”. Then whoever took control over her seems to speak to the actual Sombra that is imprisoned in her body. “You won’t break ‘em that easily, my dear.”. Sombra tries to hit him again from behind this time even staying in invisibility, but Gio hears her footsteps in time. He hits her again with a vicious strike, grounding her again. Of course, he does not plan to kill her. He thinks back at how her neuro implants work. The hacker naturally needs to maintain a remote connection to her implants to keep her under his control. To protect the access to her precious device the implants shut down connections as soon as she gets her body into rest mode. That means when she sleeps, or when she loses consciousness. Gio knows what he has to do. Sombra tries to get up quickly, but suddenly her legs give out and she falls to the ground again. The actual Sombra seems to make progress in blocking the hacker’s access to her motoric abilities. Gio walks up to her and she raises her frightened gaze to the tall avenger. “Careful! Stay back!”, she speaks insecurely and aims her machine pistol at her own head. Gio sees her weapon hand starting to shake irregularly and waits patiently. Her hand opens and she drops her machine pistol to the ground. Sombra’s face gets more desperate as she realizes that she is defenseless. What Gio has to do now is going to hurt him a little on the inside, but it is a necessary evil to do if he wants to free Sombra from being controlled like a puppet. He closes his right hand around her neck and lifts her slender body up. “Lo siento.”, he smoothly says, naturally addressing the actual Sombra, and executes his infamous stranglehold. Sombra wheezes and winds in his massive hand, trying to come free. Gio needs to be careful that he doesn’t kill her, so he watches carefully how she fights for her breathing air. At some point she starts to hit his steady arm and her eyes turn inside her head. Then her resistance ceases and her eyes close. Gio immediately loosens his hold and lays her unconscious body on the ground. He touches her neck to see if she still has a pulse. Luckily, she does. Gio wonders what she has to say about this odd incident, but for that they should get to safety immediately. Gio picks Sombra’s body up and lays her over his own neck as well as his wide shoulders. Out of the sudden, the alarm sets off. The storage room is lit up in red and a very loud alarm sound that hurts in the ears appears that definitely will turn the entire compound against him. The hacker probably reactivated the security systems to blow their cover. Would have been to easy if everything would go just as planned.


	18. 5-5 Guardian

From the ceiling drop three large, heavily armed omnics with different weapons: One with two heavy machine guns as arms, one with an integrated grenade launcher and another one with two large blades as arms. The grenade launcher omnic shoots first and launches a high-explosive ordnance at Gio. He catches the grenade and launches it back, but the omnic with the swords blocks it by activating a forward shield. The sword omnic attacks Gio who dodges his two vicious slices with Sombra on his shoulders. The third one is unexpectedly precise and the omnic rips Gio’s suit. Gio spots a slightly bleeding cut in his face. The omnic got him well. As Gio is focused on the sword omnic, he spots another grenade launched. At the same time, the sword omnic attacks with another strike. Gio cannot stand still and deflect the grenade or the sword will hit him. Also, there is no cover nearby where he can hide. He takes a huge leap to dodge the sword slice and covers Sombra’s body with his own to protect her from the incoming blast. The explosion impacts his body and he feels how his suit gets riddled with shrapnel and dirt. A sharp pain pierces his back and his legs. He gets up from Sombra and examines her. She is unharmed. The machine gun omnic comes and rises his guns to execute them – The worst mistake this robot can do. Gio stands up fast and brings up his stasis shield to block the incoming fire. The high-caliber rounds from the machine guns last unregularly heavy on his powers. His body aches more with every moment he holds up his shield. His injuries might be worse than he thinks. The omnic acknowledges that he doesn’t get through the milky shield and ceases fire, but at the same time the sword omnic jumps at Gio from his left side. In pain, Gio riddles the sword omnic with the machine gun bullets and stops his attack. The mass of bullets is strong enough to destroy the omnic entirely. The heavy omnic body falls to the ground, flickering and full of holes. Using the destruction of the sword omnic as distraction, Gio hides behind a metal container and lays Sombra’s body gently on the ground. He doesn’t want to put her in danger any longer and wants to give them the rest without worrying about her. For a moment he looks at her. “I’ll be back.”, he coolly says as she would listen to him. He walks around the container and investigates the inside while passing it. Gio stops as he spots a fancy sportscar inside the container. If he wins the fight fast enough and gets the exit gate open, this will be their ticket to escape. Gio feels again the burning wounds of the shrapnel in his back. Engaging the omnics in an open battle would probably be his death with his injuries, so he needs a rather clever than rude approach. The two omnics are looking for him. Gio hides and watches the omnics carefully to find a weak spot in their armor. The grenade launcher omnic has a suspicious exhaust on the back of his head. Out of the shadows Gio throws a glare bolt in the face of the grenade launcher omnic to disorient his scanners and hops on his back. He pulls out his handgun and shoots into the orange-glowing exhaust. The omnic tries to throw him off and launches grenades. While Gio is still shooting into the weak spot he catches the grenades with his light powers and launches them into the exit gate. It is apparently not fortified enough, and he blasts a big hole in it which is big enough for the sportscar to fit through. The other omnic fires his machine guns at Gio who simply uses the omnic he is riding as a shield. He keeps firing blindly at his comrade and shoots armor parts as well as his grenade launcher off. That is Gio’s chance! Ignoring the pain, he leaps from the back of the destroyed omnic and grabs the grenade launcher. After rolling into a crouching stance with the heavy weapon in his hands, he activates the unusual trigger mechanism and launches the grenades that are in the barrel. Gio empties the grenade launcher on the remaining omnic and destroys him in the explosions, leaving nothing but burned scrap. Then he drops the gun and runs behind the container to look for Sombra. She is still unconsciously leaning against the container just like he left her. Immediately he picks her up and carries her to the sportscar inside the container. Gio can already hear more activity in the base, more omnics approaching from inside the compound. He smashes the side window and opens the front passenger door as much as the small space lets him, then he gently puts Sombra in the seat and fastens her seatbelt. After he sat down in the driver seat, he quickly overrides the sportscar and steps on the gas, passing the irregular hole in the exit gate. They’ve made it out, but there is still a lot to do. Of course, Gio cannot return to the hotel where the Hawthorne delegation is accommodated, at least for now. He still needs to get his belongings from his hotel room. It is highly probable that they got evacuated and Gio’s absence after the power outage did not remain unnoticed. As he drives through the dark streets of Paris, he looks for a hotel nearby the Seine. Luckily, he finds a very fine one from a similar caliber like the hotel the Hawthorne delegation is staying at. He stops the car near the water and makes sure that nobody is watching him. After Gio got Sombra and her stuffed handbag out, he sinks the car in the Seine. Whoever owned this car is not going to be happy, or he doesn’t even care as he could buy hundreds of those. Who knows? Gio carries Sombra into the hotel. The bright lobby with a fancy red carpet is only occupied by an omnic clerk, wearing a black suit and a monocle. Gio knows that his appearance will concern the omnic, regardless of him maybe not being able to feel emotions. If a man looking like he fought an entire army comes in and carries an unconscious woman around, everybody would be concerned. Gio casually moves up to the reception desk. The omnic hesitates as he examines the weird sight. “Good evening, sir… And ma’am.”, the omnic politely greets, despite of having an insecure undertone in his voice. “A room, please.”, Gio dryly answers. “Yessir.”, the omnic speaks and types in his modern computer. After a short moment, he hands Gio a key card. “I guess we speak about everything further tomorrow. Do you need medical assistance?”, the omnic cautiously asks, naturally fully aware of Gio’s appearance and the unconscious Sombra in his arms. “We just need rest.”, Gio answers. They need some rest indeed, that’s for sure. “Alright, Sir. If you need anything, just give me a call. Have a pleasant stay, sir… And ma’am”, the omnic says and slightly bows to Gio. He responds with a short nod and steps into the elevator, still carrying Sombra in his arms. After he opened the door to the fancy and clean hotel room, he carries Sombra to the bed and lays her down slow. Like a gentleman, he makes sure that she lies comfortably and pulls the sheets over her hips. For a moment Gio stares at her, watching her breathe. She looks so peaceful, despite of getting strangled, almost shot and blown up. Gio has done his job of protecting her very well. Sombra is unharmed, her dress is still cleanly white. The tall man has taken every beating himself for her and he really looks like it. Gio lets himself down on the armchair with red velour leather beside the bed. While having Sombra in his sight, he slowly passes out.


	19. 5-6 Mañana

The warm rays of the morning sun wake Sombra up. She briefly lolls around under the comfy sheets and slowly opens her eyes. Sombra spots the tall man sleeping in the red armchair next to her king-size bed and begins to smile. His black suit is covered in dust and torn at some places. His face is carrying some nasty scratches and bruises. She immediately realizes that this man has gone through hell to save her. A strange feeling of gratitude crosses her mind. She feels a pain in her neck and stretches. Gio opens his gloomy-white eyes as he notices her movements. Their eyes meet and they briefly pause, staring into each other’s eyes. Sombra smirks. “Things did not go my style, did they?”, she asks. “Do I look like it?”, Gio dryly responds. She giggles as she already knew the answer. “I owe you my life, I guess… And I hate having personal debts.”, she vividly says, expecting another fierce answer from the tall avenger. She really appreciates Gio’s commitment as he noticeably has gone through a lot to get her out safely. Gio hesitates and answers, “I might remind you, depends on the dresses you wear during our next meetings.”. Sombra opens her mouth in surprise and amusement. A flirty response from him, out of the context? Definitely not what she expected. “You? Going soft on me? After all this?”, she laughs. Gio coolly shrugs his shoulders. This guy is truly a riddle even to her sometimes. “How do you feel?”, he asks emotionlessly as always, but Sombra can feel his concern. “A bit of a stiff neck. But aside from that, estoy bien.”, she answers. The marks of the stranglehold are naturally noticeable. Gio nods and asks further, “How did you get hacked anyways?”, he asks with a suspicious undertone. Sombra lowers her gaze to the carpet floor. “Everything can be hacked…”, she responds. “And everyone.”, he adds. Sombra smirks contemplatively. He is damn right. Gio accepts her short and blank answer. “What’s next?”, he asks and leans forward. “Still remember our deal!”, Gio adds, again with his hard and serious intonation. She knew he would ask that sooner or later. Him saving her life was an extra, so their deal still stands as he helped her getting hands on some omnic dirt before the other hacker took over. The information sadly got deleted and Sombra is left yet again empty-handed, but she has still some aces up her sleeves to change that. In fact, that unknown hacker accomplished the seemingly impossible by hacking her usually inaccessible implants and with that, he hurt her pride. Sombra lifts her gaze again to the patient, white eyes of Gio and gravely responds, “No te preocupes! I will get you something. But first, I will figure things out to get this hacker. No one gets away with hacking my implants like that!”. Gio lightly nods. “Do you need help?”, he asks. “Ohh, this is strictly personal, Gio. Don’t worry, I got this!”, Sombra determinedly answers. Again, his answer is just a nod. Then he stands up from his armchair. “We should separate for now. No one should see us together.”, he speaks. “Right. Adios, grandullón!”, she delicately answers. Gio walks to the door and reaches out for the door knob. “And Gio…”, she adds, making Gio hold the knob in his hand without turning it. “Don’t die on me.”. He briefly looks over his shoulder and silently leaves the room.


End file.
